The aim of the World Architecture Community Awards is to highlight and publish remarkable projects that might otherwise remain unnoticed by the international public yet have the potential to inspire exciting questions about contemporary architectural discourse. The Sant Esteve Sesrovires Secondary School is one of the projects awarded.
Landscape, topography and the geometry of the site played a major role in determining the implantation of the building, while privacy and transparency constituted the two basic principles to define its character. On the other hand, public authorities require affordable, easy to maintain buildings that fully adapt to previously laid functional schemes. There is a need to optimise the space available, create livable facilities that go beyond their educational purposes and satisfy other needs of the communities they serve. It was also necessary to keep the building at a reasonable scale in relation to the surrounding area and to allow users to visually enjoy as much as possible the views around.
The school is laid out in an L-shape, with the classroom and office block aligned with the main avenue, and the nucleus containing the gymnasium, changing rooms and cafeteria, parallel to the Ca n'Amat road. The entrance is between them and leads to a porch that joins the two blocks. The classroom block comprises a linear volume housing the general classrooms and a series of perpendicular modules that accommodate administration, library, laboratory and workshop. Both form a courtyard that provides natural light to the circulation areas while the classrooms face the hills across a small river. The other block is laid out over two levels to adapt to the natural slope of the site, with the cafeteria at the entrance level and the gymnasium-cum-assembly hall one floor below. The two levels are connected by a three-run ramp, which starts at the school’s main entrance.
The project will be included in a publication on the WA Awards that will soon see the light.
Entradas
