Through a dual volumetric strategy, where a tectonic L-shaped volume interlinks with a lightweight one, the proposal presented to the competition for the new CEU Cardenal Herrera School of Veterinary Medicine in Alfara del Patriarca integrates the pre-existing context and stitches the public realm. The building articulates a connection between the academic program and urban life. It creates porosity between public space and the student community.

 

Context

The site, with an elongated geometry, contains two pre-existing buildings: a four-story residential block and an attached single-family dwelling. Both structures are integrated into the proposal. The design strategy completes the block around these buildings. It weaves the urban fabric with the aim of generating a coherent and harmonious urban fabric that responds to their different heights and characters.

 

Volumetric Strategy

In response to the context, the proposal outlines two L-shaped volumes that, when combined, form the perimeter of the site. The volume located to the northwest adopts the height of the taller residential block, while the southeast volume adapts to the scale of the lower building. From this interlocking emerges a central courtyard, open and connected to the surroundings. The lower L opens at ground level through a series of rounded volumes, allowing visual and physical passage.

 

Programmatic Organization

Building upon the volumetric strategy that has enabled the weaving of the urban fabric, the program is organized. Its character is reflected in the materials and appearance of the two L-shaped volumes.

The taller volume features a more solid stone façade and houses the classrooms and research area. The second volume, lower in height, is translucent and lightweight, and levitates over fluid and rounded pieces whose brick surfaces convey warmth. Here, the public program is housed on the ground floor, with faculty and tutorial rooms on the upper levels.

The two volumes—stone and lightweight—create a large central courtyard, conceived as a contemporary cloister that structures the life of the building.

 

Materiality

A counterpoint is established between the tectonic and the light. The massive façade consolidates the connection with existing buildings and provides thermal mass—in response to the climatic needs of the classrooms. A translucent volume floats above the fluid ground-floor volumes, providing luminosity to the ensemble.

 

Relational Spaces

The building’s porosity to the urban fabric is achieved by opening the main entrance to the south, onto the boulevard that connects the campus parks and plazas. The entrance is covered, between soft rounded brick volumes, and leads the visitor into a double-height hall. This hall opens onto the central courtyard, a large atrium of triple and quadruple height, becoming the social heart of the School.

In the building where the classrooms are located, a “service wall” is arranged alongside them. It contains service spaces and circulation, including a large staircase with seating area, work and relaxation spaces. This large staircase connects and stitches the gradient of spaces that exists between the large central courtyard with its communal character and the rooms where classes take place.

 

The proposal for the CEU School of Veterinary Medicine weaves, through a constructive and formal duality, the urban context with university life

The project consolidates and nurtures the inhabited town while making the relationships between student community and public sphere porous. Respecting the necessary independence of concentrated learning spaces, the building constructs a gradient of areas that link to one another, from the most public and urban to the most intimate and academic, thus articulating a place where learning is also dwelling.