Teresianas School Extension

Barcelona, Spain

Photo © Simón García

Drawing © Picharchitects

Architects: picharchitects

Location: C/ Escoles Pies, 42, 08017 Barcelona, Spain
Year: 2014

It is the extension of the Teresianas School of the c/ Ganduxer.

Because of its heritage value, the passage of time and the various education reforms, the school has been left without enough classroom space and recreational covered areas.

The new extension re-locates all grades and provides the school with new covered sports space with the necessary infrastructure to provide a service to the school and extracurricular activities.

It has been a challenge to design a new building in an environment with the uniqueness and significance of the current Teresianas School.

It was decided to locate the project on the best place of the plot that would not affect the visibility of the pavilion designed by Antoni Gaudí.

The volume respects the height and distance of the surrounding buildings and links to the existing sports hall.

The building had to talk about its time without turning its back to the specific textures of the existing buildings, so it was decided to use a woven ceramic facade that provided a large lattice facing the street and light and lighting elements into school. This double skin, allows more freedom and flexibility in the distribution of windows and opaque elements needed.

The pavilion needed to provide a sports space on a basement floor, consequently it was proposed a hanging metal structure that allowed the building a clear floor.

The classrooms are distributed from a central hall that receives light in each of the floors, through a solar chimney. The interiors are proposed from the maximum austerity and simplicity, according to the strict requirements of the center.

The whole project has worked to achieve minimum consumption of air conditioning and indoor air renovation, vegetation plays an important role in air quality and cooperates with the machinery necessary to reduce pollution. Radiating heating has been chosen as the solution that provides greater comfort and heat transfer.

The location of the building allows an overall restructure of the functioning of the school and clearly enables a separate access for second cycle students. It also provides an additional service that does not interfere with school schedules and performances of the religious community.