Velez-Rubio Health Center
Velez-Rubio Health Center
Losdeldesierto
ARCHITECTS
Losdeldesierto
YEAR
2009
LOCATION
Almería, Spain
TYPE
Government + Health › Medical Facility
On speaking about Velez-Rubio it is inevitable to refer to the weight the landscape has on this population. From the motorway Murcia-Granada, Velez-Rubio emerges on the side of Maimon, as a child protected by her mother against the immensity of the grandiose mountain range of Sierra María, in dialogue with the peak La Muela.
It must be pointed out that we are speaking of a territory full of revelations, like the discovery of the well known Abrigo or Cueva de los Letreros, located at the side of the mountain range Sierra de Maimon Grande, where paintings like the “Indalo” (anthropomorphic figure which has come to represent Almeria), “El Brujo” or “El Hechicero”, among others, are housed.
The cave paintings of los Velez were declared artistic/cultural heritage by the UNESCO in December 1998.In a place where the immensity of nature is so impressive, so full of nuances and contrasts, it was only a question of observing the keys that would determine the volume and the clothing of the building.
Concepts like earth and snow, brightness and opacity, light and shadow, silver and brown.Determined the use of steel as material to use, with certain nuances on its surface treatment.
The rusty appearance of Corten steel interpreted the earth and the metallic appearance of galvanized steel materialized the glitter of the snow and the sky.
The patina acquired with the passage of time will fuse, mix and stain the contrasts among these elements so that the skin of the building will age naturally without losing its identity.
At first sight the Health Center emerges as an amorphous volume, without any specific shape, in the same manner as a mountain peak.
The building, as discovered by the person who walks or wanders through its surroundings, will reveal its fissures, hollows and carved caves in the steel piece.
To emphasize hollows and carvings in the volume, different colors, symbols and texts are used.This will let visitors identify the different points of access to the building as areas where the wrapping skin opens and announces the interior.
Walking around the building becomes a permanent surprise, despite the constant repetition of the pixel effect on the skin of the facade.
We could say that the exterior of the building has infinite faces and infinite moments modified by the impact of the sun, the lights and shadows, the people that comes and goes or those that placidly use the public space of the piazza that gives access to the building.
