Francisco MANGADO
 
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FRANCISCO MANGADO

CEU San Pablo University building in Alcorcón, Spain+

2022-

Alcorcón-Spain

5.672 m2


The building that houses a school of architecture, perhaps more than any other of an educational nature, must express the values of clarity and efficiency. In our training, “coeducation”, learning from our peers, is as important as direct teacher-student teaching. We learn through exchange. That is why we refer to the space where we work in the projects as “workshops”. Places where we work together. Thus, these teaching spaces, together with laboratories and classrooms, must be arranged in a rational way, in visual and spatial continuity, so that they can be integrated and adaptable for uses that are not always regulated. Places that can be easily adapted to changing functional requirements over time.

It is a matter of the project transmitting the concept behind the idea of economy as a useful attitude and, today actively desired, applied to the practice of architecture. Architecture, from its ideological assumptions, must aspire to a balance between means and ends. Between resources used and objectives achieved. And this is not understood as something reductive but as a synonym of a creative and proactive attitude. Only a relationship in which the ratio between means, conceptual and formal, and results, is adjusted, allows us to begin to speak of “goodness” and “beauty” architectural. It is not enough, but it is necessary. This is the true meaning of the term “economy” applied to architecture. It is not so much a quantitative principle, but an ideological one. We must therefore propose a building that is “sensible” from the functional and structural logic and, therefore, formal.

Swimming pools for the University of Vigo
2005
/
2009
The project is drawn up as large outlook onto the campus, and the whole organization and arrangement of uses are indebted to this idea. The users will be able to enjoy views of the campus and its buildings from this raised platform containing the swimming pools.The access to the pool through the most elevated area allows to accommodate the main functions in a single floor. The complementary ones – dressing rooms and sanitation services - are organized following an L-shape. All of them within an itinerary conceived in material terms as a slightly opaque one, defined by the smaller scale of the uses therein contained. Embraced by these are the poolside spaces, glazed and open onto the campus, “floating” beyond the structural and functional limits imposed. The ends of this platform, whose interior contains areas for resting after exercise, are cantilevering volumes (spanning approximately eight meters) that seem to escape the base anchored to the ground so that the users may feel as if they were flying.This light platform of water that hovers over its surroundings contrasts with its strong, solid granite base. This base endows the swimming pools with facades, aside from accommodating the systems and other necessary services. From the exterior, it is perceived not only as the facade of the building, but as a pre-existing base of topographical nature that is anchored to the subsoil, so defining the raised outlook character of the public level. The other central argument of the project is the roof. The large outlook has a clear, powerful and attractive roof, of large spans and an internal geometry in accordance with the existing deep beams. A roof that allows to generate rich spaces and light nuances – the roof has a skylight – that enhance the overall image of the complex. During the project design a special attention was paid to the water space that was to be generated, it had to be efficient but also appealing and sensual. In this sense the roof plays an essential role.
New Technologies Training Center
01-04-2004
/
03-04-2008
The proposal for the Center for New Technologies of Santiago de Compostela is based on two essential ideas. The first one springs from the conception of the place and its process of topographic adaptation, and the second entails a sense of efficiency. Efficiency having to do in this case both with the speed in which the project must be executed and with the fact, strictly functional, that the resulting building may need to undergo variations in program over the years.The building is laid out in two parallel pieces separated by a large glazed courtyard. The first piece rests on the higher and narrower area of the site, and contains the access as well as all the uses which may be considered ‘complementary’ to the academic and other general activities of the building (control, administration, services and systems); and the second piece goes up on the lower area of the terrain, oriented towards the south, orderly and smoothly gathering all the classrooms and workshops in such a way that these can be subdivided or brought together in accordance with the different needs and circumstances. Both pieces are connected by a series of bridges, more or less wide, which hover above a landscaped surface full of trees. A wider piece (supported off by the two prisms and located next to the entry to provide direct access from the exterior) contains the assembly hall. The cafeteria and library take up a relevant position in the upper part of the building with panoramic views onto the horizon and the buildings that surround the church of Santa Mercé.The surrounding terrain thereby manages to sneak into the building in the form of a garden, structuring the construction as a sequence of volumes adapted to the topography where the rich and textured granite walls, retaining and enclosure walls, shall engage in dialogue establishing a contrast with the smooth walls clad in marine aluminum sheet treated with sand and glass blasting, the two materials that define the final appearance of the building. The adopted solution is also expressed through a logical construction system. The tight construction deadlines suggested developing a system of structures based on prefabricated concrete and light and dry construction. Considering the assigned uses, and their foreseeable variation, the systems are mainly exposed.