Architecture School in the “El Carmen” neighbourhood. A place for everyone.

This project looks for creating an Architecture School in the historic centre of Valencia that responds to the place’s needs developing more than a functional program. In a complicated area, the Architecture School wants to point out the value of the cultural surroundings’ duality. It responds both to the architectural heritage and to the new currents.

The project tries to solve the urban problems detected and has, as the main objective, the creation of a public space inside the plot that becomes a meeting place between the neighbours, the students and the near facilities visitors. It also wants to take the activity out of the school, to offer equipment for a wide territory, to transfer the ground floor to the pedestrian and to adapt the building scale to historic city one. \nThe implementation strategy consists of rebuilding the boundaries of the plot and pushing the construction to the perimeter to achieve a generous public space inside. This central space is sunken to dialogue with the scale of the surrounding buildings. This action also allows separating the access to the school from public circulations.\nThe program is broken down and established in laminar pieces that allow the interior to be released to the maximum, generate space for the square and adapt to the scale of the place.\nThe project looks for permeability, materializing its facades in glass, to get a reflection of what happens in the environment. Another material used is the ceramic as typical material of Valencia that maintains the roots of the city's construction tradition. The composition of the glass facade, which becomes the image of the School of Architecture for the modern city, is inspired by the artistic work of Josef Albers.\nIn conclusion, the Architecture School expects to complete the urban scene, give spaces to the neighbourhood, and the city by extension, adopt the scale of the surroundings and to be a reference city point, becoming a place for everyone.