Las Palmas de GC Architecture, Puzzle Piece, Canary Islands Building
Puzzle Piece Building : Las Palmas de GC
Infant School Building, Canary Islands design by Romera y Ruiz Arquitectos
12 Jun 2012
Puzzle Piece Las Palmas de GC
Infant School La Herradura – landscape, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Design: Romera y Ruiz Arquitectos
Location: TM. de Telde, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Balearic Islands, Spain
Photographs: Juan Correa
At the patio of the Infant School ´La Herradura´ a new organic landscape grows against the rigid tipology of the original building, opposed and superimposed. The bright colours and soft shadows gently fill the newly covered patio, turning it into a living landscape. In a similar intent to Villa Mairea the supports vanish and the satinated treatment of the enclosing walls captures the luminous reflections, helping to fragment an impressionist reality formed by spots of colours.
The patio, thus, becomes a scenario for representation, a limitless scenario adequate to the magic of the infant games. Whilst glympes of the outside trees can be seen from the patio, the new roof cover has been permissive only with them and with the clouds, the rest erased from the canvas. – Juan Luis Trillo de Leyva, Professor at the Seville School of Architecture.
images : Juan Correa
The brief demanded a cover solution for the existing patio that would generate naturally ventilated shadowed areas and protection from the sun and rain for the infant games. On plan, the organic form encloses the exterior envelope of the direct routes between classes, dining-room and main access.
The result is this sort of puzzle piece that inserts itselft into the old, subtle dialogue by barely touching it, almost floating like a cloud, light flooding the existing walls. Despite the poured 60m³ of reinforced concrete the cover appears light and airy, with a changing slab section of 20cm-30cm.
The cover is suspended from the existing roof structure minimising the number of pillars. The metallic circular pillars of dimension 114mm x 5,4mm, are coloured like a small forest, disappearing against the enclosing walls. The roof slab is suspended from the existing roof structural beams with bolted metallic HEB120 profiles.
The cover changes the character of the space, the result achieves an expressive and unitary vision of the object, allowing to control the solar radiation, light, rainwater and providing intimacy and scale for the infants.
Puzzle Piece Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – Building Information
Lead Architect: Romera y Ruiz Arquitectos, Las Palmas de GC, Spain
Architect: Romera y Ruiz Arquitectos, Spain
Client / Developer: Concejalía de Educación, Ayuntamiento de Telde, Spain
Environmental Engineer: Romera y Ruiz Arquitectos, Spain
Main Contractor: Syocsa Inarsa, S.A., Spain
Structural Engineer: Ventura y Machado Asociados, Spain
Location: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, southwest Europe
Architecture in Spain
Contemporary Architecture in Spain – architectural selection below:
Spanish Architecture Designs – chronological list
Architecture Walking Tours by e-architect
Puzzle Piece won the World Architecture Festival 2011 category ‘New and old’
WAF Awards Shortlist 2011
Canary Islands Architecture
Canary Islands Architectural Designs
El Lasso Community Centre, Las Palmas
Romera y Ruiz Arquitectos, Spain
El Lasso Community Centre
Faculty of Fine Arts, La Laguna, Tenerife
GPY Arquitectos
Faculty of Fine Arts Tenerife
La Cisnera Community Centre, Arico, Tenerife
gpy arquitectos
La Cisnera Community Centre
Palacio de Congresos, Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands
Henning Larsen Architects
Palacio de Congresos Lanzarote : concert and congress hall
Ravelo Medical Clinic, Tenerife
gpy arquitectos
Canary Islands Clinic
San Cristóbal church Tenerife
Estudio FAM Architects
Canary Islands Building
Studio-House Acorán II, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
gpy arquitectos
Studio-House Acorán
Gran Canaria Architecture for Collegio de Arquitectos de Canarias
Spanish Architecture – Selection
Barcelona Pavilion Building, Barcelona
Mies van der Rohe, Architect
Barcelona Pavilion
Hotel Puerta America
various interiors by famous architects
Spanish hotel building
Guggenheim Museum
Architect: Frank Gehry
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Buildings / photos for the Puzzle Piece Las Palmas de GC – Infant School La Herradura Building page welcome