Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Secondary Education Institute was renovated by the architecture studio Vírseda - Vila Arquitectos teamed with the architects Miguel Ángel Cámara Mamolar and Miguel Fernández Rueda. The institute is located in the center of the city of Logroño, north of La Rioja, northern Spain.

The building, located between the main Espolón promenade and the City Hall designed by Rafael Moneo, takes advantage of this situation to transform the building into a new hub of public activity while maintaining its original educational use.
The reform of the I.E.S. Práxedes Mateo Sagasta carried out by Vírseda - Vila Arquitectos, Miguel Ángel Cámara Mamolar, and Miguel Fernández Rueda allows the use of the building to be extended to the entire day due to the new uses included such as an assembly hall, some museum rooms, a large multipurpose classroom or different sports facilities for the use of citizens.

The large scale of the interior spaces that characterize this building allows it to accommodate larger public uses in three perimeter bays, while the south bay is used for the institute's classrooms. Due to regulatory restrictions and the protection of the building, which prevent altering its facades, the roof planes are manipulated to introduce sunlight, and the three bays are reconstructed with modern techniques and materials but respecting the original image.
 


Integral reform I.E.S. Práxedes Mateo Sagasta by Vírseda - Vila Arquitectos + Miguel Ángel Cámara Mamolar + Miguel Fernández Rueda. Photograph by Adriana Martínez.

Project description by Vírseda - Vila Arquitectos

The work undertakes the comprehensive reform of the Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Secondary Education Institute, an illustrious institution in La Rioja, whose headquarters building is located in the center of Logroño, between the main promenade of Espolón and the Town Hall, designed by Rafael Moneo.

The project takes advantage of this privileged location and representative character to not only respect the old educational use, but also transform the building into a new pole of public activity, whose use regime is not limited exclusively to school hours, but extends to the entire of the day. Thus, the new building houses, in addition to the teaching program, an assembly hall, some museum rooms, a large multipurpose classroom, and sports facilities for the enjoyment of the citizens.

The new program is structured around the two patios of the building, covered in the project to maximize their exploitation taking into account the thermal and rainfall characteristics of the area. The free condition of the building and the existence of accesses on its four facades are taken advantage of to also allow functional and time simultaneity of all uses.


Integral reform I.E.S. Práxedes Mateo Sagasta by Vírseda - Vila Arquitectos + Miguel Ángel Cámara Mamolar + Miguel Fernández Rueda. Photograph by Adriana Martínez.

The original building is characterized by the large scale of its interior spaces. This is used to house larger public or educational uses in three of the perimeter bays. The fourth bay, the south, is completely emptied and restructured, both in plan and in section (one more level is added), to accommodate all the Institute's classrooms. Regulatory restrictions and the protection of the building require its exterior image to be kept unchanged, so the light sources necessary for the new teaching spaces are created by manipulating the interior roof planes. The building breathes towards the sky.

The different spatial and functional characteristics of the spaces in the South Bay are equally emphasized by their light metallic construction and materiality. These contrast with those of the three remaining bays of the building, practically completely rebuilt (only the thick load-bearing walls were maintained) with modern techniques and materials, but always respecting the dimensional and formal parameters of the original work.

More information

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Architects
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Vírseda - Vila Arquitectos (Alejandro Vírseda Aizpún, Ignacio Vila Almazán) + Miguel Ángel Cámara Mamolar + Miguel Fernández Rueda.
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Project team
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Javier Sancho Melús, Guillermo Gutiérrez Bergón, Carlos Fuentes Almonacid, Pilar Sánchez de Miguel, Ana Asensio Rodríguez.
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Collaborators
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Quantity Surveyors.- Nieves Vicente Recio, Esther Ciordia Berbés, Raquel Rivas González.
Engineers.- ETESA Structural Engineering, Torne Engineering.
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Builder
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UTE Dragados – Qoda Construcciones.
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Developer
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Government of La Rioja.
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Dates
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End date of works.- November 30, 2022.
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Location
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Logroño, La Rioja, Spain.
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Photography
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Vírseda - Vila Arquitectos is an architecture studio founded by Alejandro Vírseda and Ignacio Vila that develops projects in a multitude of fields and scales of architecture, from large hybrid buildings to urban infrastructures and small domestic works.

Alejandro Vírseda Aizpún is an architect who graduated in 1997 from the Higher Technical School of Architecture (ETSAM) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, where he specialized in Building and Urban Planning. He is an Associate Professor of Architecture at ETSAM, with Professor Alberto Campo Baeza and a registered Architect of the College of Architects of Madrid.

Ignacio Vila Almazán is an architect who graduated in 1999 from the Higher Technical School of Architecture (ETSAM) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, where he specialized in Building and Urban Planning. He was a visiting professor between 2003 and 2005 at the UBT (Technical School of Architecture of Burgos) and is a registered Architect of the College of Architects of Madrid and an Architect registered with REG (Fondation de Registres Suisses des Professionnels de L'ingenierie, de la Architecture et de L'Environnement).
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