Alicante University Rectorate Building

Description

Sitting: The University of Alicante in San Vicente del Raspeig occupies the site of the former military airport of Rabasa. The site destined for use as a rectory is a rectangular parcel of a North Eastern-South Eastern orientation.At the extreme Northeast, the site is defined by the classrooms, while at the opposite side emerges, fortunately conserved, the control tower, with its obvious modern references.Geometry and Volumetric: The rectory building, with its clear horizontality, is thought of as a closed fortress defending itself, in the Hispanic Muslim manner, from the torrentially hot climate, accentuating the distinctly planar character of the campus. This gives the building the needed closure permitting a geometric definition and a detachment from the various open spaces without clear form that appear throughout the university campus.Comprising the width of the classroom volume, the rectory is a factor in its scaling. It gradually dimishes in area as well as in height as it approaches the airport tower, emphasising the value of that noteworthy structure. A preference for simple volumes is common to both the tower and the rectory. The rectory is established as a double-courtyard building, a letter "H", with clearly differentiated uses. As an interiorized spatial organisation, the building permits solar protection through the careful use of covered galleries and sunshades; while overlooking through contained openings, the austere, imposing and unifying exterior character of the most institutional building of the campus, given the disparity of the adjacent structures.Spatial organisation and accesses: The rectory is basically laid-out in two floors above grade except for the third of the building closest to the tower when it unfolds into a single floor. The structure is completed by a small underground level. The plans clearly mark the hierarchies of use as the courtyards distinguish and qualify them. Thus, the larger courtyard, of a longitudinal form, is dedicated to the organisation of the administration; while the smaller courtyard distributes the social and representative functions. The piece linking both courtyards is devoted to the horizontal and common-use spaces such as vestibules, atria and various accesses. The organising scheme of the interior spaces, repeated throughout most of the building, is based upon a sequence of rooms facing the courtyard with a distribution hallway on the opposite side separated from the room by a double wall containing technical and mechanical functions.The principal access to the rectory area occurs close to the control tower, where the building is at its lowest, and at a tangent to its main axis. That entrance, reminding one of the indirect accesses of ancient structures, along with the appearance of water, transports the visitor, almost suddenly, to the large courtyard. The entire length of the courtyard would have to be crossed before the visitor enters the building, through the piece which separates the two courtyards. There exist as well two other accesses, of more restricted use at the extreme opposite of the building, close to the classrooms. The first, a pedestrian access to the Representative Department courtyard; the second, a direct car access to the underground level.Program:- Underground level (at-3.00m)- Parking requirements for staff vehicles and loading/unloading vehicles are resolved at the underground level which includes general storage spaces as well as technical equipment rooms.- Ground floor (at +0.30m) - The classrooms surrounding the large patio separate the work areas from the distinct administrative functions and services of the rectory; they are completed by restroom areas. The entrances as well as the control points and atrium constitute the piece separating the patios where are comprised, as already mentioned, the horizontal and vertical connections. The same piece leads also to the auditorium /semicircular grand hall.- First Floor (at +4.10m) - The first floor completes the programmatic requirements of the rectory with its more institutional functions.(Álvaro Siza)