The project proposal for the Student’s Residence on U.L.E Campus by MACA Estudio + VIRAI Arquitectos is designed as a system rather than a building. Unable to design a solution based on the conditions associated with a given plot, the project offers an independent and isotropic system, with its own “domestic” rules, which does not depend on where it is located and responds the same way to the different physical conditions that can be found. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The competition calls for proposals for a student´s residence on the new University of León Campus using prefabricated building systems. However, there is no specific plot determined for this use yet, but several possible locations within the campus. The design of the new system is based on fragmenting the required program into smaller clusters, instead of a massive block. Four equal blocks with mixed housing types, and common uses in each of the blocks, allows the solution to fit any form that the future plot can have, regardless of its shape, since the cubes will easily adapt to it.
Each of these four blocks contains 50 dwellings and all uses required for the daily student life. The blocks interact through the ground floor, but are also connected across the parking in basement. They relate creating qualified and different outdoor spaces according to the needs of each area (sports, meeting space, and vegetation). It is a standard, modulated, removable, sustainable, and recyclable solution, flexible and developable in phases, adapting the development to the economic and physical demands of the precise construction moment.
Constructively, the project is based on an aggregate of modules, the size of a single room, which is itself prefabricated using a system of timber panels (KLH) from controlled logging forests.This creates a grid based on the module (single room), repeated isotropically in a radial net, around a central void that allows relationship and communication between plants.
The common areas are distributed in height, instead of concentrated on the ground floor, each floor enjoying a common-use space, with interesting views, obtained by extracting three modules.
Architects: MACA (Christian Álvarez, Jorge Garrudo) + VIRAI Arquitectos (Marta Parra, Juan Manuel Herranz) Location: León, Spain Team: Anna Casati, Ana Collado Client: U.L.E. León University Date: Competition November 2011 Result: Honorable mention Size: 7.000 M2 Visualizations: VVV agency for architectural visualizations
