The site for this refurbishment and extension of the secondary school is on the edge of Artés, an area still in the process of consolidation, where large facilities and isolated single-family homes predominate. The new building is designed as an organic extension of the original 1970 square-plan school. The available site was very small. Only after the building was finished was an additional site annexed to expand the sports area.
The main decision was to locate the entire educational programme on the first floor of the existing building, leaving the lower levels for the complementary programme: administration, dining hall, gymnasium, etc. In this way, internal communications between the two buildings are optimised and a single functional organism is obtained. A large open porch connects the two buildings and links them to the playing fields.
Due to the shape and location of the site, the new building has east and west facing facades, which are not the most advisable for a school. Hence the importance of the sun protection elements, which respond to the need for light control and at the same time contribute to the final image of the building. They are more densely located on the west side, where greater protection is required, and less so on the east side.
This difference also reflects the different programmes on each side: the standard classrooms, which are used for longer, more numerous and smaller, are located in the east, while the specific classrooms, which are larger but used more sporadically, are located in the west.
The position of the programme generates a dual volumetry that responds to the different conditions of the context: it generates a continuous façade open to the fields, while on the street side it is fragmented into volumes of a similar size to the houses opposite and relating to the old school.
