This cultural centre in the Spanish city of Alcobendas comprises an elevated concrete framework supported by rows of pillars and a pair of grand public courtyards .
Spanish firm Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos created the Espacio Miguel Delibes to accommodate a university, the regional headquarters of the PhotoEspaña Global Centre, and amenities operated by the neighborhood council which includes a media library and a citizen’s suggestions centre.
Situated in the creating Avenida de Pablo Iglesias area of the city – which is located on the northern outskirts of Madrid – the creating occupies a 6,000-square-metre plot that is open on 3 sides to increase its connection with the neighbourhood.
The facility comprises three principal constructed components that, in accordance to the architects, “plainly vary from every single other but are entirely interrelated”.
“Every of these volumes have independent use and accessibility from the street,” explained the studio. “They can as a result be used at different occasions and in diverse ways, which makes it possible for for a completely versatile use of the complex.”
The initial of these structures is a raised frame-like construction containing the classrooms and lecture halls of the university, which is named Universidad Popular.
Corridors along the inner edges of this volume are lined with glazing, enabling views looks down onto the central courtyard beneath.
Rows of slender rectangular concrete pillars along two of the building’s edges prop up the upper storey, forming a sheltered cloister-like walkway that prospects to the rear of the website.
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Contained inside of the central open area are two added structures – a glazed cube and a taller tower clad in a perforated metal mesh – that generate a pair of publicly available patios.
“The gap created by the perimeter crown forms a large void, a spacious patio in which the other two volumes are inserted, leaving spaces filled with air and light between them,” the team said.
A landscaped location in front of the developing merges with the greatest of these outside spaces, which functions as a patio outside the centre’s main entrance.
The second courtyard is flanked on 1 side by the glazed cube and on the other by the taller tower. It receives much less sunlight and for that reason gives a relaxed shaded surroundings in the course of the hot summers.
The glass box positioned at the heart of the facility homes a multipurpose occasion area and reception location on the ground floor, with a devoted exhibition hall and a lounge on the very first floor.
“Its centred position in the complex, among the two patios and tangential to the perimeter volume, turns it into an isolated entire body which, thanks to its crystalline materiality, seems to be like a enormous evening lantern from the outdoors,” the studio added.
The use of glass was intended to give this structure an ethereal appearance that contrasts with the solidity of the concrete employed throughout the rest of the complicated.
Behind the glazed volume is the bigger construction containing the citizen’s suggestions services, PhotoEspaña’s amenities, and rooms for the university’s director and teachers.
A staircase that ascends along one edge of the larger courtyard offers access to the upper storey of the glass cube.
Photography is by Alfonso Quiroga.
Project credits:
Group at Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos: Carolina Fernández, Francisco Arévalo y Hugo Berenguer
Venture team: Belén Rivera, Marta Tobías, Silvia Villamor y Saúl Castellanos
Graphic design: Luis Muñoz, Carlos Ripoll y Daniel Roris
Versions: Fernando Mont y Víctor Coronel Benítez
Venture management: DPS, Javier Poole Derqui
Amount surveyor: Yolanda Pérez Basanta y Cristina Nicolás
Contractor: UTE: Acciona- Obenasa (estructura), UTE: Peyber-Foshidro (acabados e instalaciones)
Structural engineering: NB-35 S.L.
Service engineering: Pérez- Barja S.A.
Telecommunications: Pérez-Barja S.A.
Axonometric diagram 
Floor program 
Segment Dezeen
