It is a work very dear to us, developed over a long time, in which we refine our conception of Architecture.
The building that housed the Social Welfare and Health Departments of the regional government was initially a Youth Residence, which was later functionally recycled for administrative use, with significant deficiencies:
- Insufficient scale. The set did not have the presence and image that corresponds to a public building.
- Inappropriate dimension. Problems at a functional level due to lack of space for the two Departments, Social Welfare and Health.
- Lack of hierarchy in routes and rooms.
In the architecture competition won by ESTUDIO AIA, we proposed the expansion of the existing building with a new complex located at the back. The development of the work was to be carried out with the original building in service. Once the first phase was completed, the offices had to be moved to the new construction to intervene, in a second phase, in the pre-existing building.
The proposal articulates a set of 4 towers joined by a basement that solves the horizontal circulations. Each of these towers houses different administrative departments in small areas, avoiding the impersonal image of large office extensions.
The sunlight, very aggressive in these Castilian latitudes in the summer period, is studied, protecting the interior of the room with horizontal corten steel slats. The vertical communication elements of each tower are located within an opaque travertine stone prism that contrasts with the lightness of the slats and the curtain wall of the work offices.
A modification of the project during the execution of the work meant the demolition of the pre-existing building for the construction of a new one as an extension of the first phase, thus integrating the entire complex with a unitary image.