The project joins two school complexes, a school and a high school, within the entirety of a block of trapezoidal houses, of 5,000 square metres, located in the new extension of Vilassar de Mar, laid out on an old agricultural area. Although the school and the high school are included in the same plot, they are two organisations with a completely independent operation, which are related by the simple juxtaposition of the subsequent contact areas. Both buildings are organised by means of pavilions connected to each other through external circulations, which may or may not be covered. The variety of outdoor spaces (cloisters, courtyards, small squares, gardens, porches, vegetal roofs) define the character of each of the buildings. The project is structured based on the arrangement of these exterior spaces, connected to the building through alternating roofs.
The project joins two areas, a school and a high school, within the entirety of a trapezoidal area of 15,000 m2 in the new extension of Vilassar, laid out on a large agricultural area. The school and the high school are two organisations that operate independently and stand shoulder to shoulder. The construction structure of both centres is based on the organisation of pavilions connected by external circulations, covered or not, since the good climate of the Maresme favours this opening to the outside. So, this relationship with the outside defines the character of the buildings based on the importance, variety and life of the external spaces (cloisters, courtyards, squares, gardens, porches and vegetal roofs).
The whole project revolves around the differentiation of outdoor spaces made up of the building, the walls and the trees. At the school, the distinction happens in the access space to the central cloister, the porches on the ground floor, the small classrooms playgrounds, the sports field and the access to the kindergarten playground. In the high school the distinction is between the entrance ramp, the access playground, the classroom playground, the porches on the ground floor, the sunken playground of the students, the agora of the gym, the assembly hall and the sports field.
In the school, it has been sought that all the spaces on the ground floor and first floor relate directly to the land, while in the high school the first floor remains segregated. It has been ensured that the lighting of the spaces is always double: lighting from the south and from the north to enable a real control of the light inside the spaces, related to the use and solar control. The treatment of the spaces in the high school has been, with intention, harder than in the school, not only because of maintenance issues, but also because of the more massive nature of these centres.
