San Miguel Arcangel School
SAN MIGUEL ARCANGEL SCHOOL
A3gm
CATEGORY
Schools
LOCATION
Burgos, Spain
ARCHITECTS
A3gm
AREA
465.0 m2
YEAR
2008
PHOTOGRAPHS
A3gm
Text description provided by architect.
The building is designed on a plot with previous use as a garden and play area for children, in a small town with natural surroundings of great beauty.
The first requirement of the intervention was to maintain the values of both the plot and the landscape and to preserve existing trees, taking care of visions from the village and from the traditional points of observation.
To integrate the building into a disintegrated urban fabric, we use a decomposition/adition strategy: each space demanded by the program corresponds to an autonomous volume, and the linking is made with a lower piece of circulations and services.
This element takes the role of the building thermal control, since it is almost completely closed to the north and opens into the spaces between classrooms to form courtyards that allow controlled sunlight and an adequate level of lighting. The performances of the piece are complemented by a vegetal roof.
The building is located on the plot to order a series of open spaces: an access area to the urban scale main facade, a north narrow band next to neighboring plots to set up as a sequency of patios, and a free zone south and west to which the four educational pieces open through plans protected by wooden slats.
Thus the perception of the school is double: from neighboring plots appears as a broken wall, gardens and some trees, with a scale similar to the traditional residential; from the south - the river bank- appears as a small group of pieces juxtaposed with greater height and open to the play areas.
Emphasis is set on the circulation and relationship area. It is constructed like a piece of a certain generosity specially in terms of natural lighting. The north wall is developed from the access to the service pack expansion in a broken form underlined by openings dividing it into planes.
Towards the south playground this area expands in two little covered porches that are configured between the classroom volumes.
The constructive characteristics of the building seek to take advantage of the values of traditional construction, in terms of passive conditioning especially, adding some contemporary contributions as large glazed surfaces shaded with slats, vegetal roofs, coating materials derived from wood, natural rubber, etc.
