New Al building, CITIC. Univerity of A Coruña | Irisarri-Piñera + Sabín-Blanco Architects SLP

Architecture, City and Nature
The project develops a guiding strategy that starts from three spheres of reflection: Management of workloads, of energy and of space, to allow the user a wealth of options and work environments according to the moments and tasks to be realized, and energy savings by conditioning areas depending on the type of space and occupation at any given time.

Eduwik Architecture Excellence Awards 2022
Second Award | Public Building (Concept)

Project Name: New Al building, CITIC. Univerity of A Coruña
Project Category: Public Building
Studio Name: Irisarri-Piñera + Sabín-Blanco Architects SLP
Design Team: Jesús Irisarri, Guadalupe Piñera, Patricia Sabín, Enrique M. Blanco, Joaquín Sánchez
Area: Architecture
Year: 2021-22
Location: A Coruña · Spain
Consultants:
Photography Credits: Irisarri-Piñera + Sabín-Blanco
Other Credits: Alba Perez Porto (collaborator)

In addition to these “functional” objectives of the “private” space, there is the conviction that institutional buildings must participate in the life of the community and help make the city. To this end, they need extroverted spaces with the capacity to interact with their surroundings, meeting places that transform them from infrastructure to a social space through the emission of internal activity.

And on top of that, the most fundamental thing, to build a habitat where the symbiosis between nature and artifice generates a rich and flexible space, with the best virtues that each one of them offers. A place capable of creating spaces to share knowledge and experiences, a place that its inhabitants make at every moment. People move, places are transformed.

A collective multipurpose space is created for the transfer of knowledge, the forum, a tiered space that places the building on the site, and that sews the landscape to the two levels of the plot, activating and incorporating nature into the architecture. The common spaces, exhibition spaces, etc., function as an atrium, the circulation tree that expands vertically, integrating the flow of air that is naturally air-conditioned, and to which the high atriums open up to form the social spaces, where the researchers interact, and which open up, inserting the interior into the surrounding park.

Responding to the contemporary social organization, the project adds to the program a conciliation space on the first floor, with direct access to the garden, can be used at any given time and in a flexible way. Floating above the common podium, and forming the vertical atrium, two corridors of modular wooden spaces, offer on one side the laboratory buildings, and on the other offices, specialized rooms, etc. Together with the diversity of environments, the project is organized in packages, which offer a configurable environment, integrating the demands of space-climate-construction-lighting-acoustics…

The laboratories, generic spaces with light control and precise acoustics, can be configured on demand in multiple ways, with modular elements of equipment and division of space if needed. These more concentrated workplaces are surrounded by galleries for informal or extroverted work. The “resting” space that the program proposes is understood as a place for relationships, spaces for sharing, relaxation but also knowledge. The place of friction where the best ideas emerge.

The laboratories are open to the landscape, generating social spaces, where the shared rooms are overturned. Our holistic approach takes into account not only the ecological footprint, but also the impact of the process on the use and the neighborhood.