COAM HEADQUARTERS. ESCUELAS PÍAS DE SAN ANTÓN.
Ideas Contest.
2005. MADRID

SUMMARY.

The Project calls for a versatile, flexible building capable of accommodating different activities and of adapting easily to future changes. 

The concept of a town square is developed on the ground floor and the basement below, which has been provided with natural light and ventilation from perimetral patios located in the extrados of the restored facades and party walls. 

A central, double height open space communicates the two levels of the town square.  This space is the location of escalator ramps, and establishes a visual link to the garden area and the pond.  An impluvium collects water from the waterfall cascading from the glass beds of the four patios, that feed into the lake situated in the clear ceiling on the ground floor. 

Water is an essential element of nature and its eternal genesis creates a magical universe.  Water represents life, regeneration, transformation, change.  The presence of water is stimulating, and generates sensations, feelings and emotions in this town square.   

Water, plant life and sunlight are the three elements essential to life and the wellbeing of human beings.  Contact with nature is life giving, and its revitalizing effects are omnipresent in this proposal, through the use of water, light and vegetation within the architectural space. 

The context of the four patio gardens, water fountains, and torrents of light that flow through the building inundating and illuminating every space, converging in the waterfall that in turn dives into the impluvium, evokes a magical universe full of architectural gestures.   

This conjunction of water, sunlight and plant life in the patios and the square, help to lessen the aggressiveness of the urban environment. 

The perimetral patios built into the existing external facade and the new internal facade, as well as in the party walls, act as mufflers to provide acoustic and thermal insulation for the building, as well as regulating environmental parameters in the interior.   

The proposal includes architectural concepts such as squares and patios, and elements such as light, water and vegetation, for the creation of spaces that are amiable, attractive and comfortable as an operating environment for meetings, exhibition, work, leisure, sports, etc, in relaxed surroundings, protected from the aggressive atmosphere generated by traffic outside. 
 
The proposal is designed as a significant work to revitalize the surrounding area, not only through the establishment of a new center, but also as an architectural whole capable of provoking feelings, sensations and emotions.   

The project addresses development through a hierarchy of activities and takes into account the cohabitation of different management systems, usage periods and diversity of use.   

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