CEM Universidad de Vigo
Location: Vigo (Spain)
Year: 2023
Type: public competition.
Client: Universidad de Vigo
Area: 2.612 sqm
Team: Pablo Valero Escolano, David Úbeda Sales, Francisco Garrido Roca, Rocio Martínez-Fons Delgado, Roque Carlos Valero Parra
Resource: Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (Milano, Italy)
The present proposal for the rehabilitation and extension of the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo arises from the convergence of three main objectives:
- To achieve an effective dialogue and a peaceful coexistence with the Siemens building and with the rest of the ETEA complex, enhancing public spaces and shared territories.
- To achieve maximum functionality, comfort, and flexibility of the building, both as a whole and in the organization of the laboratories.
- To provide the greatest energy efficiency, both in the use of materials and in the implementation of passive systems.
A series of operations are carried out in order to achieve these goals. First, the additions to the Siemens building are removed, rehabilitating the bay with heritage value and adapting it to house the laboratory program, given the compatibility of this bay with the optimal laboratory module dimensions. By placing the laboratories in the perimeter bay, the center of the building is freed, allowing the creation of a central axis that follows the rhythm set by the building’s main façade. This axis will become a passage, atrium, and meeting point for CIM users.
The creation of this atrium allows the centralization of communication cores within it, thus achieving an organizational scheme with great flexibility and adaptability. This action also aims to strengthen the atrium as a flexible meeting space, fostering collaboration and synergy between teams, reinforcing the sense of community among CIM users. At the same time, this atrium allows the connection through the building between Beiramar Square and the new public space proposed next to the hillside, thereby making the building permeable and integrating it into campus life.
With this layout, voids are introduced on each side of the central axis to ensure optimal conditions of ventilation and sunlight in all rooms of the building. Transparent façades are proposed in these courtyards to achieve spatial richness and to introduce biophilia into the working areas.