La Llauna Secondary School is a project by Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós to refurbish and adapt an early 20th century factory – the Gottardo Factory of Andreis Metalgraf Española, popularly known as ‘La Llauna’ – to convert it into a secondary school in Badalona.
One of the most remarkable strategies of the project is its positioning with respect to what was there beforehand. Certain key points of the building are spared to improve the quality of the spaces and the relationship between them, as well as to highlight the intervention within the original building.
At other points, however, the building is simply stripped bare or underlain by the addition of new volumes that generate new spaces. The result is an intervention that respects the pre-existence, resignifying it and making it part of the new functioning of the building.
The access, located on Carrer de Sagunt, is one of the examples of the strategy explained. This is configured by means of a large metal sliding door that draws a curve in the floor with its opening. This is fitted into a vertical strip in the façade formed by openings in the upper floors, emptying the original façade and highlighting the entrance to the new school through this new fitting. The access gives way to a large free ground floor, which is designed as the ample space that is lacking in the street through which the school is accessed, leaving only the original structure of the factory and cornering off the essential services such as the caretaker's office or the secretary's office. This design of the ground floor as a new public space is reinforced by the placement of typical urban elements such as lampposts and bicycle racks.
The stairwell can be accessed through the ground floor, on the side where the services such as the concierge's office are located, directly via stairs, and on the side of this new free space, via three large ramps that complement the desired experience in this large space and stop at the height of the lattice beams that support the forging. From this point, stairs continue the access to the hall situated on the first floor, designed as a meeting point between the classrooms located on the first floors. The hall is presented as a large double-height space thanks to the hollowing out of the floor slabs, which allows visual relations to be established with the upper and lower floors, becoming a balcony over the entrance.
The materials used in the intervention are mainly three: concrete block, iron and wood. The first two materials are already present in the original building, leaving wood as an element that brings warmth and domesticity to the spaces and breaks with the typical factory aesthetic. Thus, concrete blocks are mainly used in the new interior enclosures, while iron is used for the structure of the lighter elements supported by the original structure, such as staircases or entrance devices. Wood often complements the metal structure by forming the steps, handrails or even the flooring, and is also used for elements such as benches.
