Bioclimatic Agoras

Strategies for innovation and adaptive re-use of educational spaces

Various locations
First Prize winner in ideas competition organized by the Catalan Ministry of Education (Departament d’Educació) and the Association of Architects of Catalonia (COAC)

Doubling the educational space cost-effectively to enable pedagogic innovation

The purpose of the proposal is to transform the school into a creative, flexible and collaborative laboratory. To achieve this, up to twice as much space for the same budget is made available for pedagogical innovation, understanding that such an increase in the amount of space can decisively affect the quality of teaching, as it provides new freedoms and possibilities for experimentation.

Thus, in both new and existing buildings, it is proposed to cover with light industrialized greenhouses the exterior patios for lighting and ventilation, so that these mostly small and unused spaces are transformed into “bioclimatic agoras”, that is, into multifunctional halls which, at the same time, act as green climate buffers that enable high standards of passive climate comfort and energy efficiency.

Building up to twice as much space for the same budget is achieved through the use of industrialized systems and the removal of coatings, claddings and false ceilings where not strictly needed, thus exposing mechanical services and construction materials - which has the advantage of making service maintenance easier and also afford the pedagogical possibility of explaining construction while also allowing the sensory perception of the building’s materiality.

Therefore, a spatial and climate strategy that has a long and successful track record in Europe (Lacaton & Vassal, G. Behnisch among other architects have applied it); which has also been successfully implemented in Catalonia in buildings like the ICTA research center, Schwartz-Hautmont offices, La Borda housing, and that is also embedded in local traditions like the Eixample galleries in Barcelona, is incorporated into the educational construction sector.

Project name

Bioclimatic agoras

Location

Various locations

Client

Ministry of Education of Catalonia (Departament d’Educació) and Association of Architects of Catalonia (COAC)

Year

2019

Status

Ideas competition, First Prize

Program

Educational

Innovation strategies for educational spaces

Author

Eduard Balcells Architecture+Urbanism+Landscape

Collaborators

Pedagogical consultants

Pere Boluda, Teresa Morales, Georgina Boluda