San Juan de Alicante Secondary School / Orts-Trullenque

Architects: Orts-Trullenque
Location: Alicante, Spain
Client: CIEGSA (school infrastructures dept, Generalitat Valenciana)
Head Architects: Marta Orts – Carlos Trullenque
Assistant Architect: Ana ábalos
Structural Engineering : Javier Cases, Architect
Civil Engineer : Ricardo Casal
Mechanical Engineering: GIA (Luis Sanchis – Agustí Vila)
Contractor: UTE Proinsa-Chm
Photographs: Diego Opazo

This project was conceived to imbue a sense of place into a typology so frequently decontextualised by its location and its enclosed envelope. On the one hand, the buildings of this school occupy part of the site perimeter, thus functioning as an inhabited boundary connected to its most immediate surrounding environment. On the other hand, the north-east area of the site is set aside for an outdoor space, a plaza containing the access and bestowing the building with the basic public character, beyond its scale. Functionally speaking, the project proposes a clear floor plan, arranged according to uses into fragmented parallel strips, joined by a crossing longitudinal axis which articulates the whole and orders the interior flow. The horizontal volumes, the courtyards, the colours and plants, round off what must necessarily be a welcoming optimistic place.