Lecture Room Building of the Scientific-Technological Campus of Linares
At the height of the financial crisis, the Science and Technology Campus of the Linares Foundation decided in 2008 to cope with the different settings and industrial dismantling of the region, with a project that will promote research and innovation and the development economic and social revitalization of this ill treated and deprived neihgborhood. A project has come true thanks to the unwavering support of all social, economic and political leaders in the region.
As the head of the University of Jaen in Linares, the campus has six main buildings, including the present Lecture Room Building (Aulario) for 2,600 students. On steep terrain, its formalization addresses the need to resolve both the encounter between the different dimensions that the program needs, so a spatial fluidity and permeability occurs from different access, a fluidity which extends the relationship with the other buildings and the large central area of the campus. The building becomes a kind of interior landscape that is reshaping itself according to where we stand, always keeping in constant physical and visual relationship with the exterior.
According to its use, the ground level of the central square is reserved for the lobby and the concierge. Below, between the enclosed patio and the lawn are the examination class rooms. The upper level is for computer rooms and the top two floors are for classrooms, workshops and seminars, in general. Thus projected, the building allows redistribution in separate areas that makes it possible for more rational use depending on specific requirements: exam days, unscheduled activities, seminars, etc. So that, despite their openness and flexibility, it is possible to diminish these specific facilities both spatially and according to their particular use.
With respect to the construction, the connexion with the ground is resolved with three large concrete supports that carry the whole building conceived as a bridge of almost 40 meters of light with two floors, executed with a metal frame structure in which are located most of the classrooms. The facade which is made with an aluminum curtain wall and glass -Schüco´s system- is protected, except for the faces facing north, with a thin layer of aluminum microperforated sheet allowing the ventilation of the facade and reduced the direct insolation by 35 %, while enabling direct view from the inside .
Spatial clarity, ease of maintenance, durability and energy efficiency were the fundamental premises at the time of undertaking the project.
