Massana Fine Arts School
Barcelona ES
Carme Pinós
2017
Type
University
Tags
learning environments, art spaces , made by women, 200Best, Spain ccc
Visitability
Allowed
Description
This project was born after much searching for the place. In contrast with the housing block that tries to blend into context, what we sought for the Massana school was something unique. If we seek a domestic scale in houses, in schools we are focused on working with a scale that is larger and more abstract. With the aim of making sure the school did not dominate the whole square, we placed the main entrance in front of the future access to the Library of Catalonia’s courtyard, and created a new public space between the Gardunya square and the Canonge Colom square. The result is a dynamic building whose main facade does not look over the Gardunya square. The interior space of the school is in all open-plan with units. A terrace at the end of each area of circulation opens the building up to the square, providing the required open spaces for interaction. Although each of the school’s facades is self-explanatory - always different - and, despite the ground’s fragmented geometry, we think we have achieved a building with a strong, unified presence. We covered the school itself, which represents an institution of future craftsmen and designers, in a large ceramic piece of material, traditionally-made and unique to our building, which will help give it a singular and iconic character. (Description provided by the architects)