The Educational Pavilion, at the

The building earmarked to be the future Faculty of Medicine is an independent project which is being tailored to the two scales which exist on the site, at the edge of the hospital enclosure; on the one hand the level of access similar to that of the other buildings in the hospital complex, and on the other, the chief volume of access opposite the open countryside which surrounds it.

A compact area of 67.90 x 33.40 m contains a low part double in height which clearly defines the entrance by means of an open north facing patio, which takes in the narrow current plot link to the hospital grounds. This enclosure is home to the pavilions` communal spaces; the hall, the cafeteria, the administrative offices and the courses room. On top, there’s a quadruple height piece structured into teaching units.

The great horizontal volume appears as a compact piece in local golden stone where the different spaces are transversally articulated around empty free spaces which serve as an external reference to the internal spaces, valuable as individual parts (Libraries, Reading Rooms, Lecture Halls, etc). All these rooms are qualified by contrasting treatments according to scale light, and materials used.

Thus it is that the hall space arises from the opposition between two spaces of different character, an internal one of 15x 15 x 15 m, and an external one of 9 x 9 x 9 m, which compress it and tighten it vertically. The transitions between the successive sets of episodes- empty (access area), vertical hall space, and empty space (the internal patio) each one possessing its own properties, directs the spatial tempo of the project.

The central space knits together various public uses on the access level- assembly halls, cafeteria and lecture rooms- with the library on the first floor. In the rest of the building the varying University departments are placed according to the longitudinal axis which are lighted through the empty spaces excavated in the volume and which are enshrouded in a second skin screen-printed in gold, which filters the light by using the reference of the stony texture used in the building, thus evoking a dialogue between the ways of limiting the existing volume of a transparent skin and another opaque one.

The stone cladding continues a treatment started in other refurbished areas in the centre, but it is identifiable through its own material value, aspired to as an element of qualification in buildings which have traditionally been subjected to functional usage, but whose image usually requires the formal strength acquired through the use of stone.

THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN DONE IN COLLABORATION WITH SMAO (SANCHO MADRIDEJOS ARCHITECTURE OFFICE)