Facilities for Children and Youth Activities “La Camisera” / Cerrejon Arquitectos + Magén Arquitectos

Architect: Cerrejon Arquitectos + Magén Arquitectos
Location: La Camisera, Oliver Neighborhood of Zaragoza, Spain
Lead Architect: Sebastián Cerrejón Hidalgo and Jaime Magén Pardo
Industrial Engineer: Rafael González Barrida
Technical Architect: Gabriel Faj y Juan José Escobar
Sponsor: Municipal Management of Urbanism Town Hall of Zaragoza
Construction: U. T. E. Obearagón Obenasa
Project Area: 25,225.26 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Roland Halbe

The origins of this Project lie in the relationship between the sports placed at the facilities and the features of the site: a 25,226 m2 plot of land with a sep downward slope and marked drops in height towards the west and towards the neighbouring green space to the north. This proposal meets the needs established in the list of requirements, particularly those concerning the accommodation of the three playing fields, with the necessary north-south orientation, on the site. Thus the proposal includes three large, horizontal, tiered platforms, adapted to the relief of the land, containing the main entrance and the multi-sports court; the 11-a-side football pitch; and the 7-a-side football pitch, respectively. The location of the main entrance in the south-east of the premises, the internal movement and the layout of the various buildings and playing fields are also in line with other urban considerations concerning the plot’s location between the Oliver anf Miralbueno districts, and between the built-up area in the south and the park in the north.

On the basis of these initial considerations, the proposal is for an open-plan system, with isolated buildings between the lawn of the playing fields and the vegetation, seeking a suitable relationship between the premises and the landscape. The inner routes and urban spaces created (entrance area, porches, shelters, viewing areas, etc.) are functional items which also act to unite the premises as a whole. The project aims to provide the facilities with a certain unifying, formal, constructive quality by using only two materials, concrete and galvanised steel, both in the buildings and in the constructed items which define the inner spaces, establishing a close relationship between the facilities and their components.

The layout of the buildings is based on a highly linear, horizontal structure, with long porches marking the transit areas. In the general service and changing-room buildings, the prefabricated concrete panels covering the external, facades, and the galvanised steel panels in the interior and the porch ceiling, denote a systematic, modular character, in line with the appearance of pavilions which these buildings strive for. The changing-room building has a certain prototypical character, repeated in different positions and with different relationships for each of the playing fields. The general service pavilion is a linear building which folds over itself, from the entrance to the overhanging area overlooking the park, creating various inner spaces (entrance area, porch, green space, viewing area), housing cafeteria, lockers, officers, halls and a gymnasium. A polycarbonate mass over the entrance lends character to this space, and allows it to be lit up at night. The shelters covering the stands and entrance conceal the structural mechanisms supporting these major overhanging areas. This allows a more abstract, direct interpretation of these items, as they were desingned, as galvanised steel planes of a certain thickness, resting on a row of pillars (in the case of the stands) or concrete walls (in the case of the entrance shelter).

Text provided by Cerrejon Arquitectos.