Yellow and orange louvres include stripes of colour to the utilitarian facade of this college in Spain, but also enable teachers and pupils to adjust levels of shade and ventilation .
Barcelona studio 2260mm – whose portfolio contains a farmhouse renovation and an overhaul of an early 20th century Barcelona property – designed La Canaleta College for a internet site at the edge of Vila-sec, a developing town just outdoors the city of Tarragona.
The coloured louvres flank a series of massive windows along the building’s facade, as effectively as some of the glazing elsewhere all around the perimeter. Additionally, the doors inside the constructing have been painted in various shades.
Equivalent approaches have been used on numerous schools around Spain, which includes a concrete kindergarten in Pamplona, a series of school buildings in Zaragoza and a major school in Barcelona.
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“We think it is good for young children to have colour at college,” architect Manel Casellas advised Dezeen. “The largest challenge for a task like this was to generate an atmosphere where they would truly feel at property.”
The three,500-square-metre college was developed totally with cross-laminated timber panels, which permitted column-free of charge spaces of up to twelve.three metres broad inside the constructing.
These panels were prefabricated in a factory 567 kilometres away, permitting the building’s shell to be constructed in just thirty days. Interiors and cladding had been finished in 5 months.
“What this proposes is that it is feasible to style an ecologically pleasant building for a college,” mentioned Casellas.
“The panels had been manufactured in a workshop to minimize waste and dust, and the light-weight nature of the building meant it was achievable to use straightforward, light foundations, which even more decreased carbon emissions.”
Fibre-cement panels were utilized for the exterior, picked for their light-weight and sandy texture that creates subtle modifications in colour, based on the light.
The internal layout is inspired by the shape of a comb, designed to offer a very good movement of light and ventilation, as properly as providing straightforward navigation close to the school.
A horizontal wing houses the entrance, offices, a kitchen, dining room and gymnasium.Ttwo perpendicular wings lengthen like prongs behind it, with a single-storey wing for the kindergarten and a two-storey wing for the major college.
A courtyard between the kindergarten and primary school aligns with the entrance to carry light into the constructing and supply a see through it, assisting youngsters and guests to orient themselves on arrival.
Since the building’s completion, mothers and fathers and college students have been planting trees in this room.
Inside, the wing containing the major school has a 4.five-metre-wide double-height corridor, developed to feel like a street.
“This room is much more than a hallway,” stated Casellas. “It is a potential meeting place for college students, which can produce into a multi-function area in which different actions can take area.”
Acoustic boards line the walls in this double-height space to support muffle noise. Pine has been left exposed on the ceilings, as properly as on some of the walls elsewhere in the college.
“We believe the presence of pine aids teachers and college students feel far more comfortable,” mentioned Casellas. “We are confident this can support improve children’s schooling.”
An external layer of insulation assists to to keep a comfortable temperature within. The heating program is concentrated in the most-utilized spaces, specifically in the classrooms, to help even more lessen the building’s carbon emissions.
“The intermediate spaces benefit from the heating of the classrooms, aided by all-natural cross ventilation and an air-exchange method,” the architect said.
Photography is by Lluís Bernat.
Ground floor strategy 
1st floor strategy 
Sections Dezeen
