Located on a strip of the site, between the current Faculty and the Sant Raimon de Penyafort College, a set of buildings is planned in three construction phases that will house teaching research uses and rooms for specific technical uses, on the one hand, and a part intended for administration, departments, seminars, library, exhibition rooms and other dependencies for students, on the other.
CLASSROOMS - LABORATORIES: NORTH and SOUTH phases
The project is conceived as a 170-metre-long container, between Diagonal Avenue and Les Corts Cemetery, where a 50-metre-wide avenue is planned, which connects Joan XXIII Street with the interior of the Campus. At this point, the project turns and runs along the future avenue for a length of 44 metres. It is this façade, together with that of the Faculty of Geology building, that defines part of the character of the Avenue.
It is in this central block where the laboratories, classrooms, seminars and other services are located.
Structurally, in cross section, the building is defined by two spans of 7.8 and 8.4 metres each; reducing to one when the distance with the buildings around it is excessively small. Along the corridor there are variations in the situation of the pillars, stairs and plant accesses, thus creating different spatial rhythms.
From the outside, the changes to the structural section also give variety to the façade, thus breaking the monotony of the type of module. The ground floor is on the same level as that of the existing building. Two upper and two lower floors and an additional basement for parking and warehouses are planned.
In the square created between the existing building and the new extension, the library is projected; an underground space, at double height and lit by interior patios. Access occurs independently of the rest of the buildings to give autonomy to their operation.
LIBRARY
The library, developed in an independent construction phase, serves as a link between the northern phase of the extension and the existing building of the Faculty of Biology. It is distributed over three floors below ground level and the passable roof, which becomes a square to give access to the old faculty, the library itself and the new extension.
The program of offices, administration, warehouses and reading spaces are located on the first two levels below ground level. The third basement is occupied by facilities and parking.
The main reading area is covered by skylights in order to make the most of natural light while a double space visually communicates and illuminates these first two underground levels.
GREENHOUSES
The central space of the lot is intended for the construction of two large greenhouses with adequate air conditioning systems in order to reproduce different environmental situations. They consist of a basement floor for the location of large machinery and with systems designed to achieve a high degree of insulation from the outside.