The renovation of Sanchis Olivares connects the two entrances through an interior route carefully designed to overcome the unevenness between the boundaries of the plot, where a continuous seat energises the waiting area. The rooms and medical offices are located on the façade, thus receiving natural light and ventilation.
The new health centre renews its envelope with a skin of perforated sheet metal that allows light to pass through while preserving the privacy of the consulting rooms. Inside, the counter and the seats are part of a single carpentry work that is easy to maintain and modify if necessary.
El Genovés Health Center by Sanchis Olivares. Photograph by Álvaro Olivares.
El Genovés Health Center by Sanchis Olivares. Photograph by Álvaro Olivares.
Project description by Sanchis Olivares
The neighbours of El Genovés, a small town of less than 3,000 inhabitants located in the south of the province of Valencia, had been calling for decades for an improvement of their Health Centre. The former facility occupied part of the ground floor of a municipal building attached to the town hall and faced major accessibility problems, as well as a lack of space, poor natural lighting and a general deterioration resulting from an obsolete construction that, among other things, compromised its comfort and energy efficiency.
In this context, the town received a government funding to carry out a complete refurbishment, which also allowed the equipment to be slightly enlarged so that it could occupy the entire ground floor of the building.
One of the most significant facts at urban level was the access to the Health Centre, which took place through its side façade, through a narrow street confined between parked vehicles and the façade of the building. In this way, the ground floor ignored the square to which the main façade of the building was facing. This square is shared by both the Town Hall and the Cultural Centre, and enjoys considerable activity with terraces and benches in the shade of a large tree.
Therefore, the first project decision is to move the main entrance to the square. Next to it, we place a continuous bench and a canopy that try to turn this space into a sort of open-air waiting room. On the side façade, we maintain a secondary access that allows independent use of the paediatric area and the municipal spaces located on the upper floors.
In the interior, we connect the two entrances through an interior street where, once again, we place benches that turn it into a dynamic waiting area. This provides access to all the rooms along the façade, which are naturally illuminated and ventilated. These are located on different semi-levels, connected by gentle slopes, making imperceptible one of the greatest efforts of the intervention: to resolve the existing unevenness between the two ends of the building by means of a comfortable and accessible route, avoiding any ramp or staircase.
On a construction level, on the exterior we added a skin that renews the image of the building, while improves its energy efficiency and provides privacy for the ground floor consultation rooms. Inside, we have sought continuous, neutral surfaces that are easy to maintain, and a single continuous piece of oak furniture forms the counter and the waiting benches. The carpentry work is completed with an efficient folding system that allows the centre to be compartmentalised to allow independent evening use of the upper floor, through the secondary access and using the pre-existing vertical communication.
