Municipal Health Center

As a condition, a basic Health center programme, very precise in surfaces and distribution. Besides, at the competition time, an open impersonal place, a no man’s land between single-family houses and old residential blocks on the “outskirts” of the village, under the presence, familiar and threatening at the same time, of the mountains. The plot, a residual corner, irregular and with no defined orientation with respect to the surroundings. Then… “she” came. Almost touching the plot, an immense circular mass, with a big retractable dome and shops in the ground floor: the bullring. As a giant surrounded by dwarfs, as the usual fat woman who sits next to you on the bus, occupying her seat and yours. With the project already finished, there was nothing left to do but bearing ourselves as well as possible. Due to the irregular shape of the plot and (in the beginning) scale of the area, we decided to fragment the building in three specialized blocks: emergencies, surgeries and administration. That is, three prisms of different size separated by courtyards and the staircase. This way, the programme becomes clearly visible making easier the use of the building by patients and professionals. This also allows the interior to open through big windows and keep in touch with the exterior and the views. At the same time, each block got a more “domestic” scale and integrates itself naturally in the surroundings. Besides, the residual areas of the plot were incorporated in the public space, making it wider and better.