New Health Sciences Center of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC)

The project is generated through a simple gesture where the existing geometry of the plot is renaturalized, giving it a new value, appearance and a great idea of relationship with its immediate surroundings.

Can we reduce the visual impact of the building? The project changes the existing urban strategies. The level where life is generated must be the key level of the project, and the search for light must not visually interfere with these relationships with spaces or surroundings. Therefore, life will revolve around the large landscaped patios between levels, locating the common spaces and study areas in direct relation to the exterior.

The project was born from the idea of returning to the city the green open space that would be lost by building a building of the magnitude of the one proposed, taking advantage of the opportunity to provide this space with the necessary characteristics for multipurpose use by both the users of the future Health Sciences Centre of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and the users of the other facilities in the surrounding area, such as the Centre for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CiMUS) and the Centre for Experimental Biomedicine (CEBEGA) or the Santiago University Hospital Complex (CHUS).

The division of the programme into a basement + raised piece generates a stratification that can be invaded by the urban fabric, with new uses on the basement roof. On this roof, a public green square is generated that permeates the terraces and accesses of Level +1, giving the university community an open, covered-uncovered space for socialising and leisure with a multitude of uses. It is worth noting that the proposed solution, with connections at different levels, guarantees the elimination of architectural barriers in the building's surroundings, as well as in all its accesses, allowing continuous routes for any type of public. A design that allows a new way of understanding the faculty and the campus, in total relationship with nature and the exterior. Thus, the voids and open spaces outside have the same importance as the built spaces, since the inhabited roof doubles and raises the free space of the urban park that is intended to be generated in the strip free of constructions on Avenida Mestre Mateo, reducing to a minimum the visual impact of the built volume on its immediate surroundings.