About the site and contextual relationships.
The Fine Arts Academy Complex is proposed as the emblematic building for the development of the Masterplan 2007-2012. This statement symbolically carries the presence of education that will house the spaces dedicated to the various branches of art and its means of expression.
The site is consistent with the importance that the College gives to the proposed program given that to the south it relates directly to the new Administration building that organizes the main access and therefore supports the development of the more public image of the College.
All its boundaries are given by existing circulations.
The south-eastern edge of the site is delimited by a vehicular circulation that connects from the access and parking area to the area that concentrates the school's sports program, linking the site with its immediate surroundings of hills and local vegetation.
The north-western edge of the site is delimited by a clear interior circulation that forms part of the internal vehicular circuit of the complex. This edge is distinguished as the longest length of the perimeter and is at the same time the area of greatest contact with other existing buildings.
The topography of the terrain is perceived as a natural plateau that builds an elevated horizon above the plane of the parking lots and the access. This situation is added to the moderate slope that allows a continuous relationship from the interior of the site with its entire perimeter.
Program grouping.
According to the program described in the bases, three groupings of uses have been distinguished: 1) The Auditorium, 2) The Art, Music, Drama and Dance Halls and 3) The public space.
1) The Auditorium is proposed as a compact and autonomous volume. Its capacity allows it to generate activities outside the regular class schedule and its size characterizes it as a recognizable and singular volume. Its location is established in proximity to the access and parking lots, connecting it also to the south-east circulation that provides accessibility and independence for the annexed services.
2) The Art, Music, Drama and Dance halls are grouped in a single building that, developed in two floors, is developed longitudinally on the north-west edge of the site. This length makes it possible to arrange the two levels in the manner of a linear sequence of rooms organized according to their use. On the first level related to the "Plaza de las Artes" are the Art rooms (Middle School and High School) and the Dance room, on a second level above the first are the rooms for Band Music, Vocal Music and Drama. Each level is equipped with restrooms and the annexed services required by the program.
3) The public space or "Plaza de las Artes" is the construction of the natural plateau of the land, it allows the connections of the building of the Halls and the Auditorium. It is the plinth that organizes the constructions and links them. It is the space of articulation of the program, it assumes the existing unevenness, provides permanence and encounter, circulation and relationships.
Materiality, habitability and form.
The project proposes to be inserted within a group of existing buildings that in the manner of a portion of a city have been built over time and according to the needs of the time. Since there is no predominant typology, the project establishes a potential architecture in spatial relations and very austere in its form. The volumes are proposed from the constructive science, from the organization and needs of the program.
The proposed materiality is expressed in the exterior use of two materials; fair-faced concrete in its clearest dosage using phenolic plate moldings and industrial brick in masonry and brown brown brick veneer. The exterior pavements are based on the use of concrete and the mixture of textures resulting from the combination of prefabricated pavers and washed-in-place paving stones. In order to achieve the necessary spans in the Hall and Auditorium pavilion, the use of post-tensioned slabs and concrete beams is proposed, which generates compact and structurally very stable structures in the face of the unfavorable conditions of the existing soil.
The habitability of the Hall pavilion is based on criteria of orientation, natural light and ventilation. The north-west façade of the halls is naturally protected by the existing trees and also considers the use of metal lattice lines. Its natural light condition would allow a minimum use of artificial light. Cross ventilation would also allow for a constant release of heat during the more extreme months. All the interiors of the halls should have an insulating coating of at least 3 cm that also improves the acoustic performance of the enclosures and HDG glasses for all windows.
The Auditorium is built by using the existing slope for the development of the audience seating, which allows to regulate the maximum height of the volume in relation to the technical needs. A first envelope is the interior space of the Auditorium and a second envelope builds the exterior-interior limit. Between these two skins are developed the circulations between the access levels, one from the Plaza de las Artes and the other from the foyer and the cafeteria.
Arquitectos asociados: OF Arquitectos (Francisco Cepeda + Alvaro Ramirez) + Elton+Leniz arq. asoc.
Arquitecto colaborador: Toto Teixido
Año Proyecto: 2009