The School Complex (provides primary and secondary school levels) is located in the outskirts of Binnisalem urban fabric. The plot is located along a suburban road named “Camí de Pedaç” on which the urban planning has concentrated a heterogeneous mix of typologies, including diverse row houses, detached blocks and urban facilities.
From the beginning, our intent was to develop the project as a dialogue, on different scales, between the school and its surroundings. On the one hand, the new school building faces the road with a fragmented volume and a broken skyline that enhances perspective effects and scale control in relation to the singularities of the unorganized neighborhood volumes. On the other hand, towards interior of the plot that faces the countryside, the building embraces the sport ground areas creating a façade with bigger scale elements and more compact massing. Moreover, the building areas used only for teaching were clearly separated from those that can be used also for non school events, creating different building parts and scales that were properly arranged into the complex.
A set back on the façade to the road creates the main access space, an open plaza in the building corner, that generates the circulations and arranges the different functions. The functional packages are grouped in different levels with the intention to reduce the building coverage surface and create a plot area where play grounds, sport grounds and future extensions can be located.
An exterior ramp connects the school grounds to an elevated plaza that is created in the roof of part of the ground-floor. From this roof plaza is also possible to enjoy the excellent views of Binissalem skyline and its surrounding mountains.