Educational Centre In El Chaparral
EDUCATIONAL CENTRE IN EL CHAPARRAL
Alejandro Muñoz Miranda
YEAR
2010
LOCATION
El Chaparral, Spain
CATEGORY
Cultural Center
Text description provided by architect.
The project essentially consists of walls and a ceiling with a variable section; these elements create a sequence of compressed and decompressed spaces.
The changes in section are determined by use (corridor, classroom access and bathrooms, classroom, porch-outside covered corridor, garden, exterior covered playground) but also by the movement of the sun and the longitudinal slope of the plot.
The compression-decompression game works for both longitudinal and transversal space sequences: corridor – classroom and access to the bathrooms – class¬room – porch – garden – outside covered playground as well as classroom – bedroom – classroom.
The orientation creates a tension that is expressed through the system of apertures.
The spaces opening towards the North and the courtyard get large window panels, while towards the south and the public, light is admitted only through glazed “cracks”.
The fissures corresponding to the corridor and the exterior covered playground are brightly colours, while for the classrooms only clear glass is used.
The classrooms are differentiated according to age groups (two classrooms for children up to1 year with bedroom, two classrooms for children from 1 to 2 years with bedroom and three classrooms for children from 2 to 3 years without bedroom).
All the classrooms on the same level can be connected for larger group activities.
Even if the mobile partitions are closed, visual continuity is still present through the glazed upper parts of the dividing walls.
The whole structure evolves around the exterior covered playground, that becomes the heart of the educational centre, linking the classrooms and the interior circulation with the garden. To the East lie the kitchen and dining areas, the administration and a gym.
On the exterior, the use of white massive volumes makes for an adequate integration in El Chaparral, a district of Albolote that emerged in the 1950s as a colonization village.
