The projected building is located in a transition zone between the urban fabric of the 1960s that gave rise to the Autonomous University of Madrid - UAM, with a dense and regular layout, and the more dispersed set of units that since the 1980s have complemented it in the current campus configuration. It is also located at the end of an extensive landscaped plot (where the Rectory building is located), which is expected to extend to the northeast, consolidating the intermediate free spaces of the new growing network.
Strategically located at the confluence of pedestrian paths that delimit the long landscaped strip, the proposed building introduces a new rationality inherent to the project in the reading of the urbanity in which it is inserted, however, dissociated from it due to its status as a public space and the program that consubstantiate it.
It is based on two apparently contradictory ideas. On the one hand, it has a strong presence in the organization of the set, assuming itself as a single piece; on the other hand, it is designed to be permeable in order to give continuity to the garden, articulating leisure spaces. Thus, it incorporates a large courtyard inside the volume, which precedes the covered square (for those who access the garden), with exactly the same dimensions as the latter, creating a deliberate gradation between the exterior and interior.
At first glance, its exterior reading reveals a strange, crisp, neutral and uniform object on its continuous white concrete surfaces, apparently indifferent to its surroundings. However, a second look will discover something different: the alleged monolith is suspended in mid-air, levitating in the garden. Behind the concrete membrane that limits it, natural light reflects down to the ground, revealing the thin thickness of the façade. And under this, supporting the cantilevers, the supports are diluted in the construction of two cohesive and regular base bodies but fully covered by a glass surface that deliberately masks its solidity.
The program's modular segments and vertical access cores are condensed into these two volumes, stratified over three floors. Its glazed spaces face inwards on the first two floors, served by the covered square and a system of galleries on the first floor. On this level, the glazing facing the outside serves as protection for the large-scale mutant display placed along the entire façade, with its own lighting, suggesting an apparent immateriality that makes the wide and belted body of reinforced concrete levitate. On the upper floor, the spaces are open to the outside, shaded by a vertical concrete plane that ensures sun protection for the glazing on the east, west and north-facing facades. A system of moving horizontal awnings would fundamentally complete the system regarding the south facade. Levitating over the central space, the transition between the uncovered patio and the "square", the volume of the auditorium is transversely arranged.
Designation. Architecture Design Competition for a Service Building for the UAM Cantoblanco Campus - 2nd Prize
Location. Madrid, Spain
Date. 2007
Architecture. Ana Pedrosa, Ângelo Lopes, João Gomes, José Almeida, José Gigante
Photography. Arménio Teixeira