Raised up by one storey, the new elevated sports court sits at the entrance to Lasalle Franciscanas School. It is held in place by concrete pilotis, creating a sheltered entranceway underneath that can also be used as a general playground.

Yarza Blache, a director at J1 Arquitectos, was asked to complete installation of the structure during the six week summer holiday period, so he specified a prefabricated concrete structure that could be built in just a few days.

Two layers of steel fencing were added to create see-through walls, which are curved over at the top to prevent balls from escaping. The outer layer sits within a Corten steel planting box, so that ivy can grow up and eventually surround the court.

Ramps extend down from both sides of the structure, leading to an infants' play area on one side and an entrance to the building on the other.

Since its opening, children at the school have nicknamed the structure "The Whale" in reference to its bulbous shape.

Other playground structures completed in recent years include a pavilion featuring funhouse mirrors and a building with fairytales engraved into its facade. See more stories about schools.

Photography is by Miguel de Guzmán.

Here's a translated project description from the architect:

Elevated Sports Court at Lasalle Franciscanas School

The commission is originated by the need from the school to augment the total surface of the courtyard that due to the great amount of students and parents that usually gather during the day, can sometimes obstruct the correct developing of the sports and leisure activities that should take place in it.

The courtyard is 33 metres wide by 35 metres long and has a south-east orientation. It is formed by the existing school that has a U form with two wings, one from the 50's and another one from the 70's.

The fact of being a school meant that we had to accomplish the building works exclusively during the summer months. That fact made immediately think about a prefabricated concrete structure that could be built in a couple of days, and that could also solve the 13 meters distance that we wanted to cover in the ground level.

The necessary elimination of the two existing trees in the courtyard gave another of the key drivers of the project; the inclusion of vegetation in the new structure. To do so we have designed a 70 metres long corten steel flower pot from which almost three hundreds of ivy plants grow, that in a few years will have covered the whole metallic bubble.

That metallic bubble is formed with a double layer of galvanized steel, so one of the layers can help the ivy grow while the other one can resist the practice of teenager ball-related sports.

The ground level hosts a garden-bench with an organic shape that includes different species of plants and allows the parents and the students to sit down and observe. The relation of the new volume with the rest of the school also had to be solved, for which a soft 45-meter ramp was designed to connect the ground level with an intermediate level and the elevated court.

Another organic ramp was also included to let the children from the infantile area get out to their courtyard´s zone, also in the ground level and partly under the court.

The later visits to the school have revealed the success of the project and its fast iconic assimilation by the students, who have kindly called it "The Whale".

Architect: Guzmán de Yarza Blache
Finishing Date: September 2012
Location: Calle Andrés Piquer 5, Zaragoza.Spain
Client: Lasalle Franciscanas School
Built Surface: 350 sqm
Budget: 290.000 Euros

Contractor: GM Empresa Constructora
Collaborators: Ana Guzmán Malpica, Julien Luengo-Gómez
Quantity Surveyor: Jose Manuel Arguedas
Structure: Josep Agustí de Ciurana, PRAINSA

Above: ground level plan - click for larger image

Above: court level plan - click for larger image

Above: roof plan - click for larger image

Above: long section - click for larger image

Above: cross section - click for larger image

Above: long elevation - click for larger image

Above: side elevation - click for larger image

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You can’t miss this bright red psychiatric centre in Spain, where the differently pitched roofs are meant to reveal how much mental activity takes place in each room.

Completed by Spanish architect José Javier Gallardo of ///g.bang///, the new youth facility in Zaragoza connects to the existing Nuestra Señora del Carmen Neuropsychiatric Centre through an underground tunnel.

Roofs with the steepest pitches are located above shared common rooms, while shallow gables correspond to patient bedrooms and staff quarters are located beneath flat roofs.

The red powder-coated zinc sheets cover the entire exterior, interrupted only by frameless windows.

In the past we've also featured a mental health clinic where the doors don't open but the walls do instead - take a look here.

Photography is by Jesús Granada.

Here's a longer description from architects:

Young Disabled Moduls and Workshop Pavilions
'Módulo Para El Tratamiento De Jóvenes Con Discapacidades Conductuales'

ONE CONCEPT, ONE COLOR AND ONE MATERIAL

The assignment is motivated by the need to expand the Neuropsychiatric Center Our Lady of Carmen, in Zaragoza.

In the first phase there is a new support center for youth with behavioral problems, and currently sharing facilities with the geriatric section and, by the nature of their treatment and pathology, was necessary to become independent.

In a second phase will be built the "Module for Occupational Workshops."

PROGRAM

It has 10 single bedrooms and 8 double rooms, with toilets. The common areas of the internal are two living rooms and dining room.

The program is completed with, reception room, two offices, laundry, office, control room toilets, storage and utility room.

GEOMETRY

The floor plan is rectangular, dimensions 15.5 x 65 m. The facade has no cantilevers, but reflects the emptying of the building volume in the direction north, creating a courtyard to capture sunlight and allow controlled the patients to stay there in the summer.

The roof, for the most part, sawtooth shape, with variable slopes - very steep at some points – reflects, from the outside, the degree of internal mental activity in relation to the type of rooms they occupy: the resting or sleeping area with a slope of 60%, common areas or with maximum activity have outstanding peak of 240%.

The treatment of the spaces occupied by the medical staff and caregivers has been dealt with flat roofs.

Click above for larger image

MATERIAL/COLOR

Façade and roof are covered with red zinc coated sheet. Historically, these centers, known as asylums were unrecognizable and hidden by society.

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But Hospital, "hospitare" in Latin, means "to receive as a guest" and together with the values of the Congregation and its founder, "Hospitality between people who suffer mental impairment" and "integrating the patients into society as far as possible" where the main goals... The red color is a symbol that makes them visible... that robs us of prejudice... that emphasizes the social work... makes us more sexy! The material... the shape of this whole "scene" had to be modeled nobly!

Architect: José Javier Gallardo Ortega ///g.bang///
Client: Nuestra Señora del Carmen Neuropsychiatric Centre | Hermanas Hospitalarias del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús

Type: Medical Facility
Location: Camino del Abejar - Zaragoza, 50011, Spain
Building status: built in 2011
Number of stories: 1 (+1 underground connection with the existing buildings)
Site size: 12000 m2
Site type: Suburban
Building area: 1000 m2
Budget: 1500000 USD

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This rectangular house in Zaragoza by Madrid architects María Langarita and Víctor Navarro has an irregular geometric platform hanging off the front to afford views of the olive groves beyond.

Called Casa Doble (Double House), the house was designed for a newly-wed couple who wanted to escape from the city to the Spanish countryside.

The ground floor acts as garage and entertaining space, while the main functional rooms are on the first floor.

The wooden frame around the house will eventually be covered by deciduous climbing plants to provide privacy from the street and summer shading.

Here's some more information from the architects:

Casa Doble

Moving their home to the outer limits of a small town in the province of Zaragoza is the wish of a newly married couple about to retire. Embodied in their decision lies the conviction that it is possible to both undergo a radical change and still enjoy the comforts of their previous life. To explore this dual situation a project has been designed which attempts to evade its usual position as a solution at the end of a process and to take positions as starting point or state previous to the development.

It is generally accepted that the difference between the rural and the urban worlds has to do with the proximity to certain centres and to the specific ways of life derived from them. Descriptions linked to constructions (in their broadest sense) which display spaces, rhythms and rituals between people and their surroundings. With this project, our aim was to evaluate, starting with the home, which housing conditions and expectations of life could mobilise each of these forms by contrasting them with the experiences and wishes of the clients. The conversations led to a duality of interests: on the one hand those regarding manageability, ways of use, organisation and representation associated to those of a conventional urban flat; and on the other hand, the search for an uninhibited, light-hearted and active life, linked to the outdoors and a move to a softened “wild life”.

The plot, with a gentle, northward slope overlooking a wide, cultivated valley, is within the boundaries of the mountain town of Algairén, devoted mainly to the production of wine and oil.

The land is part of an olive grove, annexed to the perimeter of the village. The house is positioned on the north side along the length of the developable limit in order to gain a small garden and a vegetable patch to the south and have privacy from the street. The project has been developed using two parallel houses, elevated a storey above ground level to enjoy views of the valley and the olive trees.

The first is a rectangular structure, conventional in construction with a narrow section, inheritor of the ideas of the modern movement where the nuclei of kitchen and bathroom areas separated the various living spaces thus always ensuring independence, dual orientation and cross ventilation.

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Leaving the windows behind on the southern façade (as would an adolescent Gerald Durrel in search of adventure), the second home can be reached: an irregular geometric platform covered by a structural wooden shutter which folds to create different, unplanned areas connected directly to the bathrooms and kitchen self-contained functionality.

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The two structures achieve specific characteristics and are geared to use and optimise the house’s resources. The inside of the house is extended on the ground floor to resolve the programme’s requirements.

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The central nucleus which gives access to the upper floors separates two areas, of non-referential character, serves as a garage and party area. The exterior of the house is covered by a wooden frame with deciduous climbing plants that ensure intimacy from the street while at the same time stopping the house getting hot in the summer and guarantees, along with the planted roof, one of the foundations of the project: the avoidance of mechanical HVAC systems and savings in energy resources.

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The double house avoids blurring the limits between both desired ways of life or finding a single equal space. On the contrary, the project, with its duality, offers a coexistence of two differentiated house designs encouraging a state of permanent transition.

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Almonacid de la Sierra, Zaragoza
Architects: María Langarita y Víctor Navarro
Collaborators: Marta Colón, Roberto González, Juan Palencia
Engineers: Mecanismo S.l.
Construction Year: 2009
Client: Private

See also:

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Frank Gehry’s Serpentine Gallery	House in Wakaura by Archivi Architects	More architecture stories

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Spanish office Magén Arquitectos have completed a building for the environment department of Zaragoza city council in Spain, featuring a top level of wood panelling, a glass mid-section and a black-tinted concrete bottom.

Called Environmental Unit Headquarters, the building sits on a sloping site, placing the main entrance to the building on the upper floor with the slanted exterior wall of the basement visible from the outside.

The continuous carpentry-free glass panel surrounds a classroom, providing panoramic views out to the surrounding landscape.

A terraced area, designed as an outdoor amphitheatre, is connected to the roof via ramps.

Solar and photovoltaic panels on the roof provide electricity.

Photographs are by Jesús Granada unless otherwise stated.

Above photograph is by Pedro Pegenaute.

Here's some more information from the architects:

The building location has a special value based on the relationship between the built-up area of the city and the urban banks of the Ebro river, recuperated for the 2008 Expo, forming a linear park that accompanies the river on its way through Zaragoza.

Above photograph is by Pedro Pegenaute.

Situated in the centre of the city, next to the Almozara bridge, the site has considerable differences in level; about five metres between the avenue and the square at the upper level and the Ebro riverbank park.

Above photograph is by Pedro Pegenaute.

The project is based on two fundamental ideas. The first idea is in response to the special urban and landscape importance of the location, via a formal definition and configuration of the building that suggests an intense relationship with the landscape; the second aims to express the intrinsic relationship between the environmental commitment of the project and its materiality and the building programme, which houses the Forestry and Natural Areas Section of the Environment Department of Zaragoza City Council.

Above photograph is by Pedro Pegenaute.

The relationship with the adjacent urban spaces and the topographic features of the site become active conditions for the implementation of the building, making the levels of the different floors and entrances coincide with the already existing ones. These relationships can clearly be seen in the project section that also expresses the extension of the public space of the entrance, via the roof and the configuration of the building as a platform-viewpoint onto the Ebro river.

Above photograph is by Pedro Pegenaute.

The contrast between the solid podium of the platform, a continuation of the walls of the pre-existing electrical substation, and the lightness of the glass and wood pavilion that rests on this level, is one of the formal characteristics of the project, which also responds to the functional organisation of the different uses.

Above photograph is by Pedro Pegenaute.

Given the differences in level of the site, the main entrance to the building is on the upper floor, defined by the avenue and square on the electrical substation. This floor, which is for public use, houses the administrative spaces and the environmental classroom. The main hall joins and separates both spaces, enabling them to be used independently. The classroom is configured as a projection, both at floor and roof level, providing this space with 180º continuous panoramic vision, giving the impression that it is floating over the park.

The mezzanine situated over the hall houses offices that act as a backup for the classroom, which can be used for meetings and conferences. The restricted access offices of the Forestry and Natural Areas departments are located below the entrance level, in the basement: car park, changing rooms, guardrooms, warehouses and installations. This lower floor has pedestrian and vehicle access from the Riverbank Park.

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The roof is an essential element within the landscape design of the building as well as the main image that the residential buildings, which look out onto the park from the town side, have of the building.

As an extension of the outer public space and accessed from the hall, the roof is configured as a viewpoint at different levels, which are joined together by gentle ramps and a terraced grandstand, designed as an outdoor amphitheatre for possible recreational uses.

On the other hand, the programmatic demand for a certain pedagogical character in the environmental commitment of the project, which can be seen in the choice of construction as well as energy solutions and materials, is clearly visible on the roof, with its ecological and landscaped decking, solar panels and photovoltaic panels, that provide electricity for night-time lighting, via continuous flushmounted light fittings around the perimeter of the classroom and the offices, converting the building, at night, into a lighthouse in the park landscape.

The proposal is the answer to a public need to construct an urban landscape, to later, based on the construction and expressiveness of the materials, attend to those more sensitive and sensorial aspects of the material and physical condition of the building.

The contrast between the roughened, black tinted, concrete panel, with its different textures (grooves, latticework and smooth) of the basement, and the upper level, with its continuous carpentry-free glass panels and wooden boards on façades and latticework, defines the formal configuration of the building. The project seeks to provide the ipe wood with maximum expressiveness and value of use.

This wood is present from the onset of the project and it is used by way of 15 cm. wide boards in the building to conform façades, latticework and lintels, pavements, walls and ceilings, both outside and inside, where, whilst the coating of the public areas is of ipe wood, the interior finish of the Forestry and Natural Areas Unit is defined by OSB panels and black steel carpentry, from floor to ceiling.

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See also:

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Kindergarten in Rosales del Canal by Magén Arquitectos	68 Social Housing by Magén Arquitectos	More architecture stories

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by Magén Arquitectos appeared first on Dezeen.

Here are some photos of a kindergarten in Zaragoza, Spain, by Spanish office Magén Arquitectos.

Located in the residential Rosales del Canal area of the city, the building comprises nine classrooms arranged around a patio.

Each classroom has a pyramid-shaped ceiling with a skylight at its the zenith, and this shape is repeated in the larger dining hall.

Individual buildings are linked by covered walkways.

Photographs are by Jesús Granada.

The following information is from the architects:

Kindergarten in Rosales del Canal

The Kindergarten in Rosales del Canal is located in an area of residential growth in the south-west of Zaragoza. This is the first phase of an educational facility that will be completed with the primary education building. In agreement with the criteria on accessibility and preferably south-facing orientation of teaching spaces, the three buildings – Kindergarten, dining hall/gymnasium and primary – are arranged in a U-shape on the perimeter of the plot.

The Kindergarten is a horizontal construction that develops a nine units teaching programme, around an independent playground on the southern side of the site. A continuous linear porch links between the different buildings. The two main ideas that existed at the start of the project are based on children’s special perception of the constructed environment.

The first idea has to do with scale and tries to combine the general volumetrics of the public facility with the more intimate and domestic scale that must accompany the child. The second idea fulfils the conception of the centre as a significant experience in spatial terms, related to the children’s creative world. The proposal has to do with the sensorial relationship between children and architecture, through the use of space, light, materiality and colour.

The layout and the constructive logic of the project also respond to the determining factor of the need to execute the construction work in four and a half months. The basic unit of the school is the classroom. The proposal pays special attention to the configuration of this space, establishing a correlation between this essential use and a shape that can be identified as an architectonic element that has spatial, structural and constructive unity. With a square ground plan, the truncated pyramid-shaped roofing of these spaces, completed with a skylight, responds both to the primary identification of the sloping roofing with the protective roof of the house and to the advantages of height and additional lighting in the classrooms.

The greater height improves thermal conditions in summer and the zenith lighting counteracts the luminous contrasts on the inside, obtaining more homogeneous natural lighting. The shape of the roofing of the classrooms is repeated to cover significant spaces that occupy a larger surface area such as the multipurpose hall and the dining-room. From the outside, the roofing-skylight unit defines the profile and the fifth façade of the centre, visible from the houses situated on the other side of the plot.

The general configuration of the building responds to clearly organisational criteria, placing the classrooms around the patio, with the toilets and service spaces situated between them and communicated on the inside with the corridor and on the outside with the patio, via the continuous exterior porch. The lobby, the multipurpose hall and an administrative area comprised of the reception, the teachers’ common room, and the administration and management offices linked to the building access, complete the functional programme. The glazed spaces of the classrooms that look out onto the patio are protected from solar radiation by motorised slats, which also exist in the skylight. These are used to darken the classrooms at rest times. On the interior, the finish of walls and roofs with perforated laminated panels and circles of different diameters improves the acoustic comfort conditions and characterises the inner space.

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The project generates four differentiated outdoor spaces: the entrance patio, where an extensive porch connects the accesses to the two buildings, where the children can be picked up; the main south-facing patio has different areas and textures: different tree species, fountains, lawn, sandpit, concrete paving and play area with rubber paving; the patio linked to the multipurpose hall, situated next to the street, and with a lawn and trees; and the patio that illuminates the lobby, with the presence of a very old olive tree.

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Modular systems, based on light and dry construction, were considered appropriate, due to the need for the construction to be done as quickly as possible. The ventilated façade of phenol panels finished in natural wood and solar protection slats (horizontal anodised aluminium ones or vertical aluminium ones painted in colour, depending on the case) define the exterior shell of the buildings.

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The combination of horizontal and vertical wooden panels and coloured boards forms an apparently adventurous composition that introduces a playful air into the strict 1.20 x 2.40 m modulation of the façade, in accordance with the nature of the building. The orientation of the building, the thermal inertia of the façades and the solar protection elements, together with the installation of solar collectors, the radiant floor system and the mechanical ventilation, promote good energy performance of the buildings.

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Location: Zaragoza, Spain.
Architects: Magén Arquitectos ( Jaime Magén, Fco. Javier Magén)
Developer: Government of Aragon
Area: 1.790,22 m2
Budget: 1.936.546,98 €
Construction Company: Gótico Construcciones y Rehabilitaciones SA

See also:

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by Magén Arquitectos appeared first on Dezeen.