Architecture practices SUMO Arquitectes + MIM-A Arquitectes collaborated to design the new Ernest Lluch School, which is located in a high-density environment, surrounded by residential buildings in the Torrassa neighborhood in the city of Hospitalet de Llobregat, a few kilometers from the center of Barcelona.

The plot is rectangular in shape and is the result of this compact urban plot surrounded by narrow streets (two of its sides are interior and two face the street). The proposal responds to this situation in an intelligent way and is made up of two buildings, one with four floors and the other with only one, arranged perpendicularly to be aligned with the street and form the exterior closure of the school.
SUMO Arquitectes + MIM-A Arquitectes designed on the ground floor three different accesses. The main one, like a ball joint, is located at the meeting point between the two built volumes. The other two are located on the border with the party walls with complementary functions. The functional program places the dining room and its facilities in the lowest body and leaves the highest volume for the teaching program, placing the classrooms above ground level and a gym on a semi-basement floor.

The programmatic compactness facilitates better conditions of the outdoor spaces for the play areas, which are also raised on the roof of the tallest building, in dialogue with a photovoltaic pergola.

The building has been conceived to optimize energy consumption to the maximum and a palette of materials of recycled origin, easily recyclable or environmentally sustainable, has been used. The energy rating of the school is class A and falls under the category of Buildings with almost zero energy consumption (nZEB).


Ernest Lluch School 1+4 by SUMO Arquitectes + MIM-A Arquitectes. Photograph by José Hevia.
 

Project description by SUMO Arquitectes + MIM-A Arquitectes

The Ernest Lluch School is a newly created school of a line located in a very dense environment in the neighborhood of la Torrassa in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat on a very compact lot, rectangular in shape and surrounded by multi-family housing between medians and very narrow streets.The school consists of two buildings, one with a ground floor and 3 floors, and a second volume with only the ground floor. Both volumes are placed perpendicularly to generate the new facade and formalize the boundary of the school complex with respect to the closed roads.

On the ground floor, there are three clear cuts in the volumes built to generate 3 distinct accesses. At the ends, in the contacts with one of the partitions of the existing buildings, there are service accesses (wheeled access and access to the kitchen) and at the other partition, weekend access. At the junction between the two built volumes is the main access, formalizing a joint between the two types of building and organizing all the routes at ground floor level.

In the lower body is the dining room and the associated kitchen. The rest of the program takes place in the building on the ground floor and 3 floors above, including the classroom (nursery and primary) on the first floor, and a gymnasium and changing rooms on the semi-basement floor.


Ernest Lluch School 1+4 by SUMO Arquitectes + MIM-A Arquitectes. Photograph by José Hevia.

The project has a clear vocation to exploit the outdoor spaces to the maximum, to achieve large play areas on a relatively small lot in a highly densified environment. In this way, the outdoor spaces generated can be differentiated into three types:

  • Playground and sports courts, at ground level.
  • Covered play areas, on the first floor (children's playground), and on the covered floor
  • Porch areas, on the ground floor and on the first floor


The building with a very tight budget has been designed to reduce energy consumption as much as possible during its use. So an envelope with very low thermal transmittances, ventilated roofs and facades, very efficient solar protections and a layout of the floor plan that allows cross ventilation of all the living spaces has been formalized.

The maximum number of materials of recycled origin, easily recyclable and environmentally sustainable, have been used to reduce the carbon footprint as much as possible.


Ernest Lluch School 1+4 by SUMO Arquitectes + MIM-A Arquitectes. Photograph by José Hevia.

In the playground on the roof of the tall building, a 15kwpic photovoltaic pergola generates an area of shade that protects the street and frames the views over the rooftops of the neighborhood.The school has a low energy demand and part of the energy it consumes is produced in the building itself. The energy rating of the school is class A and falls under the category of Buildings with almost no energy consumption. (nZEB)

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Architects
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Collaborators
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Structures.- Manuel Arguijo.
Installations.- Natividad Casado - AIA Architectural Installations.
Energy simulation.- Oriol Barber - Dekra Ambio SAU.
Measurements and Budget.- Esteva Sitjà, Joel Vives.
Execution Management.- Jan Dinarès, Xavier Humet – Grup9.
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Client
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Infraestructures.cat and Department of Education Generalitat de Catalunya.
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Builder
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CRC Obras Y Servicios SL.
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Area
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Plot Surface.- 1797.80m².
Built Surface.- 2792.95m²
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Location
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Passage Colom 19, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat - Barcelona, Spain.
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Photography
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José Hevia.
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SUMO Arquitectes is an architecture office, established in Barcelona since 2007. SUMO is a practice led by three architects with different skills that complement each other:

Jordi Pagès Serra. Senior architect for the ETSAB. Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona. UPC 1994. He has completed his studies at the TU Delft, Delft University of Technology (Holland). Since 2007 he is an associate professor at the ETSAB-UPC-, in the department of architectural constructions. Associate at MAP Arquitectos / Jose Luis Mateo from 2004 to 2007. He is currently studying for a doctorate in Construction Technology at ETSAB, UPC. In 2007 he started SUMO Arquitectes SLP, in Barcelona.

Marc Camallonga Rodríguez. Senior architect for the ETSAB. Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona. UPC 1999. From 2007 to 2011 he has been Professor of Projects 9 and 10 and Diploma in the School of Architecture-ESARQ- of the International University of Catalonia. He has collaborated as a project manager in ADD + Bailo Rull and MAP Arquitectos / Jose Luis Mateo. In 2007 he started SUMO Arquitectes SLP, in Barcelona.

Pasqual Bendicho Cabutí. Senior architect for the ETSAB. Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona. UPC 2001. He has completed his studies at the FAUP, Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto (Portugal). He has collaborated as project manager at Enric Soria Architect and at Architekten Cie (Holland). In 2007 he started SUMO Arquitectes SLP, in Barcelona.

Yolanda Olmo Architect trained at UPC Barcelona and North London University, graduated from ETSAB in 1999. She has collaborated from 1999 to 2008 in the office of MAP-Josep Lluis Mateo Arquitectes as Project Manager. Since 2008 he has his own professional office in Barcelona, ​​alternating his own works and specific associations with other offices such as Bailo-RullADD + or SUMO Arquitectes, with which he has carried out projects such as the Sant Martí Building or the Villa Urania Equipment (under construction).

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MIM-A is an architecture studio founded by the architects Mariona Benedito and Martí Sanz. The studio understands each project as a unique opportunity to get the best out of the given circumstances, but at the same time and across the board, it is interested in ensuring that all projects are built with systems or relationships that articulate the whole and that, simultaneously, are capable of attend to the particularities, are built with rigorous and coherent construction strategies and adopt, as far as possible, measures that respect the environment, both passive and active.

They understand the practice in an open way and collaborate with other professional firms, as well as with members of other disciplines to achieve new challenges and expand knowledge. In the same sense, the members of MIM-A also participate in teaching and architectural research in different universities and workshops.

They have won awards such as the 2020 FAD Architecture Award "Edificio Caracol". FAD Award 2015. Ephemeral "Tears of Santa Eulalia". Selected FAD Awards 2012 Architecture «IES Pere IV». Selected 7th European Landscape Biennial "Can Caralleu".
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Published on: May 12, 2023
Cite: "A school that dialogues with the environment. Ernest Lluch School 1+4 by SUMO Arquitectes + MIM-A Arquitectes" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-school-dialogues-environment-ernest-lluch-school-14-sumo-arquitectes-mim-a-arquitectes> ISSN 1139-6415
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