A Barrela Health Center / Manuel Vázquez Muíño

Architects: Manuel Vázquez Muíño
Location: Carballedo, Galicia, Spain
Architect: Manuel Vázquez Muíño
Technical Architect: Visitación Mouzo Souto
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Santos-Díez

Project Area: 1,035 sqm
Project: Roberto Regatos Gomez
Structure: Juan Ferreiro Oliva
Facilities: Miguel Ces Perez

The Health Center as a place of social interaction. The building as a generator of urban space: bringing you in from the street to create a place of access, leading you away from the building’s meridians towards a backyard. The lobby as a transparent element to unite these two spaces.

A round zinc prism supported by concrete walls that leave, enter, disappear, move…generating distinct spaces and ambients, transparencies and shadows. A covered entrance, typical to Galicia.

The ground floor for reception, technicians, and pediatrics, which turns into a patio where children play. The upper floor as an area for the staff and General Practioners. Waiting rooms face the plaza with views of the valley. A perforated, aluminum lattice and the trees of the plaza provide solar protection.

Materials, textures, transparencies, colors, proportions, smells, joints…all elements of the project. Imagination as a necessary and desired resource.

To design without pretension, beyond just trying to resolve a program through simple concepts and agreeable spaces.