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.

With a very specific program and an austere budget, the project gathers in a single building a Center for Research on New Technologies and a School of Telecommunications Engineering. The new construction is located in the Basque Country, on the outskirts of San Sebastián in a park surrounded by tall pine trees, where there are other companies devoted to the same fields of study.The sloping topography of the area is at the same time an inconvenience and the essential guideline for the project design. The building, whose interior layout addresses the compact logic of a program that basically alternates offices and laboratories in a double bay floor plan, concentrates the main decisions in section. Unlike the majority of surrounding constructions, in contact with the ground, this large volume is detached from the same to allow the entry of light on ground floor along the entire perimeter. This option provides a larger amount of quality space without having to increase the height of the building – which was strictly determined –, and also leaves space to place skylights that draw light into the large basement containing the machinery. The full height of the interior corridor dividing the area of offices and laboratories is also illuminated thanks to a sequence of skylights covering the section of the building.A large bridge, which connects the retaining wall of the terrain and the building, houses the accesses. The tilted wall goes up without touching the volume in an attempt to define the relative “independence” of the piece with respect to the terrain. Over the void that is left between the building and the retaining wall, a huge cantilevering structure provides shelter from the rain and also establishes a spatial relationship – certainly ambiguous but real – with the drawn boundaries of the topography.

This project for the Navarrese capital's most important health center fundamentally focuses on the functional reply that architecture can give to the question of addressing very specific requirements in very limited conditions and a deteriorated urban environment. It also reflects on the form that must arise if the result is to take on a presence and significance of its own in this particular environment, and thereby contribute to restoring the area’s urban context.This is a building that explores the use of materials and deliberately takes on a degree of hermetism in its formal configuration.

The building is configured as a large excavated mineral, open in its interior to let the landscaped gardens become part of the construction all the way to its geometric center. The exterior perimeter, clear and delimited, contrasts with the broken and open interior one. As much the geometry of the building as its external materialization, with laminar glass sheets that have in their interior a stainless steel mesh that generates reflections and mineral textures with the impact of light, stress this idea of configuring a mineral piece, attractive in formal terms.So conceived, the piece rests in the 'place' and makes it its own. The plot is not a mere perimeter of the building, but actually becomes part of it creating spatial and visual complexities, blurring and enriching the boundary between interior and exterior. This circumstance makes it possible to establish a fruitful dialogue between the building and the place.The project had to include a broad and relatively complex program divided into functional areas. During the work process there were several meetings with the client to determine the functional organization of the building, but the more conceptual decisions linked to the architecture are the ones that have given the complex functional clarity and, in the end, sufficient capacity to adapt to the changes of future programs.The exterior perimeter is configured with the spaces and offices that, according to the program, must be enclosed, with acoustic privacy. The interior perimeter, flowing onto the large gardened central space, takes on the spatial character of an open-plan office.Though the perimeter of the building is not closed (it is substantially a U-shaped floor plan), there is a level, the upper one, where the perimeter is extended by way of a “bridge” that permits the communication of uses without unnecessary circulation movements. The exterior perimeter of the building is oriented towards the south, east and west; and the large interior garden, more protected, faces north. The whole exterior facade is designed as a double glazed and ventilated facade whose climatic properties, especially in winter, are well known. The interior space is protected from wind and, generously lined as it is with tall trees, becomes a cool place in summer, a lung that guarantees natural air-conditioning.

The project is located in front of the University Hospital of the University of Navarra, separated by a road with a lot of traffic and in an area that is elevated with respect to the remaining campus, which looks southwards. From this spot one can see almost the entire complex.The program includes offices for three different departments that are part of the University but function autonomously, and that attend frequent visits from students but also from people not connected to the University (hospital clients, for instance). The size of the plot encouraged to design a linear building. In the interior, the three departments are structured as independently built “volumes” articulated by double-height landscaped spaces that perform as access and information areas. The facade is glazed, but it tries to gather certain “materiality” with the construction of a wooden framework that gives the enclosure a certain “body”. To muffle the noise from the nearby road and reduce the level of warming of the south facade, the wooden facade is covered with one of glass, so generating a space that helps to control temperature. The desired result is a rational building representative of the values of “modernity” and “efficiency” that the University stands for.