The university centre is covered by pieces of grey thermo-lacquered aluminium, which are clad in grey aluminium, with horizontal slats of the same materials interrupting these to protect students and teachers against direct sunlight.
University Health Science Centre by Riaño arquitectos. Photograph by Alfonso Quiroga.
Description of project by Riaño arquitectos
The position and volumetry of the building is defined by the existing urban planning.
The University Centre, with a simple rectangular floor plan, organizes the programme by generating spaces of maximum diaphanousness, organizing the floor plan with communication and service cores positioned on the east façade, as opposed to the main uses and classrooms which are located on the west façade.
With a line of structural supports on the east and west façades, and an intermediate load-bearing line located between the slots of the skirting boards, the floor plan is divided into three bands, in an east-west direction, a band of service and communications cores, an intermediate band with a distribution corridor and a west band of classrooms.
The main entrance is proposed on the west façade, with a main hall, a leisure area for students, offices and teaching staff rooms. On the levels above ground level, the entire west side is for classrooms, and on levels below the access, changing rooms and toilets for students and teachers, storage and facilities.
University Health Science Centre by Riaño arquitectos. Photograph by Alfonso Quiroga.
On the roof, a floor is set back from the west façade to house machinery, with the same material as the façades and an upper horizontal pergola to conceal it.
The new volume is covered with a skin of extruded vertical pieces of grey thermo-lacquered aluminium.
The continuous grey aluminium cladding is interrupted on the west elevation by horizontal slats of the same material to protect from the afternoon sun.