Located in the Parque Venecia residential development, in the southeast of Zaragoza and among the visible heterogeneity of the adjacent buildings, Magén Arquitectos developed the “María Zambrano” school in order to respond to a strict economy of means, giving rise to an introverted building resulting from the absence of urban references and its peripheral location.

The educational complex is formed around a plot that delimits and protects the school courtyard while connecting it, opening to the west, with a forest park. This courtyard represents the connection of the project with its surroundings, as also achieved by the staggering of the different volumes on the ground and the arrangement of the classrooms on a slope, thus diluting the boundaries and connecting the various interior rooms with their context and with each other.
 

Magén Arquitectos combines different scales in its project, where the fragmentation inside corresponds to the use intended for the youngest children, and where the horizontality of the stepped exterior wall, the lattice and the access porch respond to the public character of the building and the role it plays in the configuration of the city.

The material importance and the contrasting character of the enclosures represent an interesting solution that gives rise to spaces of comfort. It is the fixed lattices, the massive wall smoothed by longitudinal openings and the glazed brick base of the envelope that manage to create a material and luminous game that notably qualifies the learning environment.

"María Zambrano" Elementary and Primary School by Magén Arquitectos. Photograph by Rubén P. Bescós.

Colegio de Educación Infantil y Primaria «Maria Zambrano» por Magén Arquitectos. Fotografía por Rubén P. Bescós.

Project description by Magén Arquitectos

The new Elementary and Primary School is located in the residential neighbourhood of Parque Venecia, southeast of Zaragoza. The heterogeneity of the adjacent buildings, a local police station and a supermarket, the absence of urban references and the peripheral location supported the idea of an introverted project. It also had to be strictly cost-effective, since a large part of the budget was used for foundations, using micropiles given the existing type of terrain.

Supported on the outer alignments, the building forms a continuous wall-fence around the plot towards the outside, which delimits and shelters the school courtyard on three of its sides. In the fourth side, the courtyard opens to the west, towards a pine forest. In contrast to the continuity of the outer wall, the buildings are fragmented volumetrically towards the courtyard, forming a set of pavilions arranged on different levels, following the topography of the plot to minimize the excavations.

The elementary classroom block is divided into two bodies of paired classrooms sharing toilet modules. All of them open onto the garden patio with different play areas. The project combines different scales: while the interior fragmentation corresponds to the classroom module and its use by young children, the continuous horizontality of the exterior stepped wall, the lattice and the access porch respond to a public character. In the primary classroom block, the building is divided into a pair of three-story volumes -staggered between them to fit the topography- and a lower body containing the foyer and the auditorium. The dining and gym volumes complete the stepped profile of the centre.

"María Zambrano" Elementary and Primary School by Magén Arquitectos. Photograph by Rubén P. Bescós.
"María Zambrano" Elementary and Primary School by Magén Arquitectos. Photograph by Rubén P. Bescós.

The frontside and backside idea is present in the different character of the enclosures. Towards the outside, a massive wall torn by longitudinal gaps with fixed lattices, with a glazed brick plinth. In the courtyard, classrooms are opened by generous glass windows, clearly linking the classroom spaces with the outdoor spaces. The importance of natural light as a material that qualifies the learning environment is shown in the designed skylights of children’s classrooms and dining room sections. At the meeting between classroom-corridor heights, a longitudinal skylight opens up facing north, complementing the window to the courtyard towards the south, thus improving the entrance of light and achieving a more uniform distribution in the interiors.

The set of buildings is adapted to the topography of the terrain, with more than a 3 meter difference, by a series of stepped platforms connected by ramps, both outside and inside. In the elementary block, the upwards-staggered section contrasting to the displacement of the pavilions in the floorplan produces the visual effect from the courtyard of maintaining a similar horizontal line in the top of the volumes. As a result of this arrangement, and the gentle slope of the inclined platforms, the perception of the half meter level jumps is diluted in the ground platform. For the topographical adaptation of the primary block, also floorplan-displaced, half a floor is staggered in height following the perimeter of the plot. This level change is resolved by a stepped bleacher, as a chill out area between longitudinal corridors. The same concept is expressed in the elementary block, with small stands between the circulation spaces.

More information

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Architects
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Magén Arquitectos. Lead architects.- Jaime Magén, Francisco Javier Magén.

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Collaborators
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Architects.- Pilar Giménez, Marta Aguado, Paul Egurrola, Victor Chueca.
Structure.- José Sainz.
Mechanical engineering.- Ingeniería Torné y Jesús Azpeitia.
Quantity surveyor.- Daniel Salas.

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Client
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Gobierno de Aragón. Departamento de Educación, Cultura y Deporte.

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Contractor
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Construcciones Mariano López Navarro, S.A.

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Area
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5,307 sqm (+ 8,938 sqm outdoor spaces).

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Dates
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2020-2024.

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Location
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Zaragoza, Spain.

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Budget
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€ 6,844,003 (MEB).

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Photography
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Magén Arquitectos is an architecture and urban planning studio based in Zaragoza, founded in 2002, by Jaime Magén (Zaragoza, 1974) and Francisco Javier Magén (Zaragoza, 1980), both architects from the University of Navarra (ETSAUN) and Master in Theory and History of Architecture (ETSAUN), and Francisco Javier Magén, an architect from ETSAUN and Master's Degree in Architecture from the University of Zaragoza. The studio addresses the design and development of projects, from a reflective position committed to the materialization of architecture, addressing disciplinary issues at multiple scales, from the place and public space to the construction detail and environmental strategies, using contemporary methodologies and tools. to explore in each case new ways of integrating a guiding idea of ​​the programmatic and functional conditions of the building in the context and the built landscape.

Our first construction project -68 VPO homes in Zaragoza- won the Bauwelt Prize (Munich, 2007) for the best international debut in collective housing. Since then, the studio's works have received over 80 national and international awards. Among others, in the FAD, Aplus, Enor, CSCAE, Hispalyt, NAN,… Awards in Spain and the Detail Preis, AIT, Brick Awards, Barbara Cappochin, Giancarlo Ius Gold Medal, MEA of Mediterranean Sustainable Architecture, Architizer,… in Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece and the USA, respectively. Six works have been Selected, Awarded or Finalist in the Spanish Architecture Biennials 2011, 2013, 2015, 2021 and 2023. The studio's career has been recognized with the Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record to the 10 emerging Architecture studios worldwide and the International 40under40 Award from the European Center for Architecture, Art Design and Urban Studies and Chicago Atheneum. The projects have been published in more than 200 articles in books and specialized magazines
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Published on: November 14, 2024
Cite: "Game of stepped limits. "María Zambrano" Elementary School by Magén Arquitectos" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/game-stepped-limits-maria-zambrano-elementary-school-magen-arquitectos> ISSN 1139-6415
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