‘Praise of the shadow’ by José Manuel Sanz wins the contest to expand the Merida Health Center

Project description by José Manuel Sanz

Conceptual proposal

It is not only a sanitary building, but a space for the stay of people with mental health problems and older people with pathologies of their own age. That is to say, of some spaces where these people will develop their habitual life while they are treated. The building must respond in a very sensitive way to this situation, helping to provide the best conditions for its daily existence.

It seems proven that an identifiable order in the spaces, in the routes, with clear and memorable references help this therapy. Some spaces where they can meet, alone or accompanied and assisted where appropriate, with other people, where they can talk if possible, or find a quiet setting for memories.

The feeling of freedom and free spaces, accessible without obstacles, for the walk and the meetings, will be of help to your therapies. Spaces with diversity, where light, sun or shadow, help them to value time, to distinguish times and seasons. Find the winter sun in the large yards and find the shade shelter for summer with the deepest ones.

The lattices will sift the light and the play of shaded spaces will allow, when in summer the screens open, enjoy the convection breezes. The dense fresh air of the covered spaces and the bottom of the shady patios will run free of their density towards the warm spaces providing that feeling of natural freshness that we all remember. In winter, these same glazed screens will allow you to enjoy the interior landscape of the building while preserving the indoor air conditioning.

Order, clear references, freedom, shadows, breezes and interior landscape are the essential components of this project.

Volume

Given the possibility of breaking up the different programs into separate modules, the proposal decides to concentrate them all in a single volume. This decision is based on two fundamental arguments: the reduction of the facade surface due to climatic and economic issues, and the need to control the inhabitants of the center for programmatic reasons.

The volume, thus, is configured by a box perforated by green areas that, if they are courtyards on the upper floor, on the ground floor they are considered as a natural landscape that crosses it. A golden ratio structural box covered by a lattice is formed. The latticework, thinner and denser in the courtyards to favor privacy and the shadow (like the old ajimeces) is nevertheless more open in the facades. In this way the unit of the set is created, leaving in the background and sifting in sight from the outside the sanitary premises that open behind it.

Functional program

The ground floor houses the General Services, the Kitchen and the Psychogeriatrics. It also contains two large landscaped and wooded patios (the fig tree, with a deciduous leaf, provides fresh shade in summer and lets the sun pass in winter) and five smaller and deeper patios that, moistened, will be a breeze factory. It contains covered areas of stay with vegetation. Through the large patios, you will be able to walk outside the enclosure, to the east of the building.

On the upper floor, the three mental health units are located around the same hollow spaces, making the room creaks coincide between both levels. All rooms are located on this slope of the building towards the rising, benefiting mostly from the first morning sun.

A network of circulations chaired by the central gallery is generated, which on both floors, collects all the connections of the center and where the elevators, stairs and adapted toilets are located, for general use. A large ramp at one end allows travel between levels without the use of elevators.

The main entrance already provides and suggests the shadow but, at the same time, in its diafanity, it allows to capture the light and the interior life of the building with the vision, for transparency of the gallery and the courtyards. Gardens and free spaces are incorporated for the walk and the enjoyment of nature both inside and outside the building.