La Vorada Center for Seniors
LA VORADA CENTER FOR SENIORS
Taller 9s arquitectes
LOCATION
Llinars Del Vallès, Spain
CATEGORY
Senior Center
ARCHITECTS
Taller 9s arquitectes
AREA
1288.0 m²
PHOTOGRAPHS
Adrià Goula
YEAR
2009
Text description provided by architect.
The building is located on a linear park that stretches from north to south The building, a white volume supported on the fence, is placed in compact form at the top of the plot, facing south, taking full advantage of the sun and views and creates a large courtyard to the south, that they are main factors in a center for older people.
The building is set through a simple and understandable language, which is summarized in a single volume on the first floor, white, light, supported on a massive base that has the vocation to be understood as a fold of the same fence of the plot, delimiting a part of the garden, the linear park, controlled, protected and conditioned.
The entrance to the building opens on the pedestrian street that it has been planned on the northern edge of the plot, collecting flows from east, where is situated the center of town, and from north, along the linear park planned on which is located the building.
The entry recognizes this north-south axis and extends it into the yard, to the other edge of the solar, where we find a second access.
The building is presented as a part of the linial park, a piece of park bounded and controlled articulating with it at the level of vegetation and visual.
From the entrance hall it is looked to have a clear reading of the whole space and the activities that are developed in it.
The lobby is split into two floors to approximate, physically and visually, all uses, facilitating the walks and promoting the views north-south towards the yard and the park (and the distant mountains.) The building offers the chance to walk through its different areas fluently.
The server spaces are located to the north (toilets, kitchen, stores ...) and public spaces open to south.
On the other hand, the most attractive and busy (such as the social dinning room) are located on ground floor and spaces that need more control and more specific requirements in the first floor.
The multipurpose room is located on ground floor, to the south and in direct contact with the patio, which it is an extension.
A porch along the whole façade, the paved area, the banks ... make of the exterior space a rich space that qualify and improves, not only visually, but spatially, the activities that develops.
On the first floor, the spaces of the gym, ateliers and library, open onto a terrace, a mixed interior-exterior space, shaded by awnings, aporovechable in summer, linked to the garden by an exterior stairs.
The spaces are designed to have an optimal natural lighting, both summer and winter, through porches, terraces, awnings ...reaching 50% of reduction in the costs on artificial lighting.
And with the lighting, ventilation was another important design factor, facilitating the passage of air from north to south in the social dinning room, by creating a 'chimney' on the back that also serves to fill the hall light the first floor.
We opted for simple constructive solutions and known materials (brick for the base, rendering for the higher volume ...) with successful aging and good maintenance. The upper deck is designed as a green roof, besides being a landscape element in an future urban environment of high-rise buldings, improves a lot the thermal inertia of the building.
