The Aljarafe School, a school building designed by two highly prestigious figures: Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró, is part of a larger project, the Ciudad Aljarafe neighborhood. Both projects feed off each other and enrich each other. The proposal was a community cultural center for the emerging metropolitan development in this area.
"The Aljarafe School is much more than a building. It is a space that for more than fifty years has symbolized the union of architecture, education, and community, and which today receives the Docomomo Plaque in recognition of its value within the modern movement and our 20th-century culture."
Nuria Canivell, dean of the COAS (Council of Architecture and Urbanism).
Aljarafe School by Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró. Photograph by Juanca Lagares.
The heritage building, an example of first-class modern architecture, was recognized for its innovative approach to what an educational building should be. Quality architecture, a pioneer in introducing strategies and ideas from second-generation architects of the modern movement, especially Team X.
The Aljarafe School, an educational and collaborative building, fuses school architecture with a teaching methodology. For 50 years, the learning spaces have fostered a pedagogy based on active teaching, committed to culture, nature, and the environment.
Aljarafe School by Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró. Photograph by Juanca Lagares.
The coherence with which the building was conceived in the 1960s and 1970s transcends eras and renders it timeless. Its marked horizontality, its non-hierarchical composition, and the richness and variety of its common spaces transcend the moment in which it was built, providing architectural lessons to this day. The placement of the Docomomo Plaque is offered as an opportunity to recognize and disseminate the valuable legacy of modern architecture in Spain.
