Badies, is an example of an extensive urban planning of the seventies with little urban qualities. In the last decade, it has undergone a population surge, necessitating an extension and refurbishment of existing health centre. The brief included works on existing building as well as an extension with new rooms for pediatrics, extraction and administrative staff to increase and improve the service provided.
The urban structure of the site is formed by an endless maze of streets and buildings without hierarchy. In this context, the new health centre wants to strengthen the image an institutional building, in an area very much in need for hierarchy and urban structure.
The commissioning of the project is set on an austere one storey building and the adjoining plot where building regulations leave room only for interventions that are a natural extension of the existing construction. The key factor to tackle was the fact that during building execution the health centre should remain open. The extension is proposed as an autonomous attachment directly “stuck” on to the existing building and a a series of phases have to be followed for minimizing the disorder to the health centre in operation.
-Preparation of the existing building. Without interfering in the daily use of the health centre. Exterior “surgery” is done to existing construction in order to regulate the perimeter.
-Construction of independent extension and when finished, reallocating the program from the existing centre.
-Refurbishment of existing building and demolition of separation wall for internal communication.
Continuos Façade
The articulation and transition between the two buildings, so diverse in nature, is one of the key issues the project is constructed upon. Taking on board technical as well as pragmatic factors, such as excessive heat radiation, location in an aggressive sea environment, etc, the new health centre also focuses on the unified external appearance of the two buildings.
A light façade covers the entire building acting as a climatic veil. When going around the new extension the system works as a ventilated façade and “brise soleil”. When surrounding the existing construction the new façade works again as a “brise soleil” as well as a fence, creating spaces between the new façade and the old construction where part of the technical room
Skin
The facade skin is designed to reduce the interior solar radiation while maximizing the use of natural light. Large insulated glass façades are used to bring light in the interior with an external sun protection composed of “Z” sections of golden anodized aluminum. These sections can be plain or perforated and due to the exact North-South orientation of the existing building, plain pieces are oriented to the south, reflecting sun radiation, while the perforated sections are located for the north orientations, letting the light in to the interior. A fixed vertical louvre system is created, protecting the interior from excessive sun radiation while letting light from north enter in the interior spaces.
The façade pieces are created from flat metal sheets, cut and folded in the workshop. The riveting two “Z” result in a rigid section with “V” shapes. These independent pieces allows for different configurations, depending on the need for opaque or translucent areas: “A” and “B”.
Configuration “A” covers the blank walls or u-glass walls with no windows. According to the orientation of each facade, the plain “z” sections are placed towards the south, to prevent the entry of direct sunlight into the interior, thus preventing overheating in periods of higher solar incidence. The perforated sections will allow optimal entry of sunlight providing a pleasant and diffused natural light into interior spaces.
Configuration “B” corresponds to parts of façade with windows allowing transparency between inside and outside, while obtaining an optimal distribution of sunlight into the interior.
