Refurbishment of Premises for Kindergarten by Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez

Una reforma sobre una aula y un patio, realizada con muy pocos recursos que consigue transformar un espacio triste en algo interesante.

Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez architect, presents us this small renovation of three hundred square meters to install a kindergarten, in Villalón de Campos, Valladolid. The generation of a vaporous image of illusion against the sadness of the depopulation of the municipalities from interior of Spain.

Description of project by Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez

Few economic resources; a large surface to transform. An interior space; a playground. We had to respond to the needs of the town, a need that becomes peremptory in a region that suffers the pressure of depopulation. A town that needs facilities, services, and aid for those who remain living there, so that they are not tempted by migration.

The kindergarten is located in the space where there were placed two classrooms. An unused space, devoid of children, inside the only primary school in Villalón de Campos. A location embedded in the flat geometry that described the voices of the imaginary characters of Delibes in Tierra de Campos.

Facing the lack of budget - around € 50,000- for complete almost three hundred square meters composed by the patio and the classroom, we decided to use unusual materials with industrial character. Materials like the OSB panel and the yellow polycarbonate were chosen for this purpose.

Industrial materials, which reverts their industrial condition from being cold and aseptic to become something more kind, tactile, warm and above all cheerful; how difficult it is to get away from color when it comes to making buildings for children.

Our intention is to revert the original properties of the materials installed by the way in which they interact with the light, by its arrangement or combination.

The osb / polycarbonate duality is suitable to establish a dialogue of opposites in order to create architectural tensions that provoke complex situations enriching the space. Solid / vaporous, opaque / translucent, natural / artificial, are inherent qualities of both materials that are incorporated in this small room. The polycarbonate helps to stratifying perceptions, depth and thickness of the enclosure, stretching the space from its condition of veil, it seems that there are multiple backgrounds when in reality both the OSB and the polycarbonate are sharing the same plane.

A small, social, needed renovation and above all a sensible intervention that stays resisting against the shadow defined by the depopulation.

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Courtyard view. Refurbishment of Premises for Kindergarten by Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez. Photograph © Jesús J. Ruiz Alonso, Pedro Iván Ramos Martín

Interior view. Refurbishment of Premises for Kindergarten by Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez. Photograph © Jesús J. Ruiz Alonso, Pedro Iván Ramos Martín

Detail. Refurbishment of Premises for Kindergarten by Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez. Photograph © Jesús J. Ruiz Alonso, Pedro Iván Ramos Martín

Site plan. Refurbishment of Premises for Kindergarten by Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez.

Section. Refurbishment of Premises for Kindergarten by Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez.Rehabilitación de locales para guardería por Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez.

Section. Refurbishment of Premises for Kindergarten by Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez.

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More information

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Architect

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Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez (www.contextosdearquitectura.com).
Construction management.- Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez,

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Collaborators

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Bárbara Arranz González, Jesús J. Ruiz Alonso, Dorota Tokarska, Sergio Alonso Alonso

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Client

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Ayuntamiento de Villalón de Campos.

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General Contractor

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Contratas y Obras San Gregorio SA

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Furniture

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Moi Interiorismo y Equipamiento

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Venue

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Avenida del Parque s/n. Villalón de Campos, Valladolid. Spain

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Area

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300 m²

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Dates

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2017

OSCAR MIGUEL ARES

Óscar Miguel Ares. Valladolid, 1972. Archtiect from School of Architecture of Valladolid, in 1998. In 2010, he obtained the title of Doctor from the University of Valladolid - for the thesis "GATEPAC 1928-1939" - being his tutor Mr. Juan Antonio Cortés. Since 2013 he is professor of design at the ETS de Arquitectura de Valladolid. He has collaborated, as visiting professor, at ETSA La Salle (Ramón Lluch University, Barcelona), at San Pablo CEU University (Valladolid) and at the School of Design at Al Ghurari University (Dubai, UAE).

His texts and works on architectural criticism have been published in different publications as well as by the composition and projects departments of the ETSA Madrid, UPC in Barcelona –with whom he has assiduously collaborated as editor in the publication DC Papers-, ETSA in Seville and ETSA Cartagena. He has given conferences and lectures in Helsinki, Mexico City, Porto, Pamplona, Barcelona, Madrid or Seville. Author of the book: "Alternative Modernity. Transits of form in Spanish architecture (1930-1936)" University of Valladolid (2016).

Since March 2012 he has been carrying out his professional work alone, together with the architect Bárbara Arranz, under the Contextos de Arquitectura y Urbanismo brand. As an architect he has won various competitions, his work being awarded at the XIV Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism 2018; work exhibited in the Spanish Pavilion of the XII Biennale di Venezia (May 2021); selected in XI Biennial of Ibero-American Architecture of Architecture and Urbanism Paraguay (October 2019); finalist in the 2018 FAD Awards; finalist in the 2017 Spanish Architecture Awards; selected Enor Awards (2020), Awarded with the American Architecture Prize (New York, 2017, Bilbao 2019); Awarded with the International Architecture Awards 2018 granted by The Chicago Athenaeum / Europeen (Athens, 2018); Awarded with The Plan Award, (Venice 2018, Milan 2019); more than a dozen awards and mentions at the Castilla y León Architecture Awards (2009, 2011, 2016, 2018 and 2020), as well as awarded at the Castilla y León Sustainable Construction Awards (2017 and 2018). His works have been published in numerous national and international magazines, including METALOCUS, Domus, Arquitectura Viva, Tectónica, Hic Arquitectura or Baumeister, On Diseño and he has exhibited in Madrid, Seville, Venice, Paris and New York.

Director, together with Anna and Eugeni Bach, of the XV Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, "Empty Spain / Full Spain; conciliation strategies", forming part of the different juries of the awarded categories.

2016 2015