I.E.S. Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
The work involves the complete refurbishment of the Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Secondary School (1893), an illustrious institution in La Rioja, whose headquarters building is located in the centre of Logroño, between the main street Espolón and the Town Hall designed by Rafael Moneo.
The project takes advantage of this privileged location and representative character to not only respect the former educational use, but also to transform the building into a new centre of public activity whose use extends to the whole day beyond school hours. Thus, the building offers citizens a new surface area of 11,353.33 m2 in the heart of Logroño which contains a varied programme for their use and enjoyment. This is structured around the building’s two courtyards, which are covered in the project to maximise their use, taking into account the thermal and pluviometric characteristics of the area. The existence of accesses on the four façades allows the programme to be arranged according to the character of the urban spaces that surround it, generating continuity between the interior and the exterior. This variety of accesses also allows a functional and temporal simultaneity of all the uses.
The north façade, facing Muro de Cervantes street, respects its institutional and main character, giving access to the library, assembly hall and lecture hall. The public library is located on the ground floor, in the same space as the original, but larger, as it incorporates the galleries of the annexed west courtyard. Its remodelling improves the previous spatial, environmental and functional quality. From the tree-lined square of the Glorieta del Doctor Zubía, on the east façade, and linked to the bicycle lane, there is access to the multi-sports area, consisting of a gymnasium, the east courtyard and changing rooms linked to this wing. The Espolón street, the main public space in the centre of Logroño, finds continuity in the west courtyard of the building. This courtyard is transformed into an authentic covered, multi-purpose urban hall open to the public, offering a wide range of cultural and leisure activities. Linked to this space, also on the west façade is the entrance to a new museum for the city, whose rooms (2) will display the valuable artistic and natural science-related collections that the building has amassed over the course of its history. On the south façade facing Duquesa de la Victoria Street is the daily access point for students to the teaching areas. This entrance is thus related to a street with less road traffic, also linked to the so-called “Paseo de las Cien Tiendas”, which the new refurbishment aims to revitalise.
The original project was characterised by a “harmonious order, as well as by the proportion and scale of its spaces” (in the words of the architect Luis Barrón himself) which various specific interventions modified over time. When the refurbishment began, the building was completely compartmentalised and badly damaged, and its initial clarity and scale had disappeared. In addition, all the entrances, except the main one, had been closed off, emphasising the hermetic nature of the interior towards the city.
The project has a twofold objective. Firstly, to “empty” the building, restore its order and recover the nobility of the original spaces, allowing the light to bathe them once again. Secondly, to adapt this order to current functional requirements (to house public uses on the one hand and the Institute’s teaching area on the other) and regulations (fire and accessibility).
Thus, the project is divided into two interventions of different character. In the first, three of the perimeter bays (north, east and west) are restored and reconstructed, recovering and respecting the original layout as required by the Municipal Heritage. These bays house the public uses and the larger educational uses (large classrooms or laboratories). In the second intervention, the interior of the southern bay was completely demolished and a new construction was erected with an additional level and a circulation structure consisting of three vertical communication cores (a main central one and two secondary lateral ones) and large double-height corridors. It houses all the school’s classrooms. Regulatory restrictions and the protection of the building make it necessary to maintain its external image unaltered, so the light sources needed for the new teaching spaces are created by manipulating the interior roof planes. This new construction is built from the roof. A new zinc roof with a serrated roof through which it breathes towards the sky.
The different spatial and functional character of the spaces in the southern bay is also emphasised by their light metal construction and materiality. These contrast with those of the three remaining bays of the building, which have been reconstructed practically in their entirety (only the thick load-bearing walls have been retained) using modern techniques and materials, but always respecting the dimensional and formal parameters of the original work. The project integrates sustainable measures and solutions that pay special attention to respect for the environment while minimising maintenance and operating costs.
