AWARDS:
-2021 Competition for the UCA-SEA Innovation Center of University of Cádiz. First prize
SITUATION: Llano Amarillo, Algeciras, Cádiz. >>Open in GOOGLE MAPS
DATES: competition (2021), project (2021)
CLIENT: University of Cádiz
ARCHITECTS: Nicolás Carbajal Ballell and Rodrigo Carbajal Ballell
COLLABORATING ARCHITECTS: Fernando Moreno Humanes, José Anelo Romero and Juan Tuñón Espinosa
BUILDING SURVEYORS: Jesús Bozzo Fernández de Tirso and Manuel Ballester Diana
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Edartec Consultores SL
SERVICES ENGINEER: Manuel Sibón Molinero and Miguel Sibón Roldán
The UCA-SEA Innovation Center is placed in Llano Amarillo, within the area of Port of Algeciras Bay Authority (APBA). The project defines a Center with easy control and accessibility, a rational, contemporary building, clear in its internal organization, with routes and circulations easy to identify by users and visitors, with a flexible and versatile layout and with comfortable work areas. Its strict geometric modulation will allow the use of industrialized systems and finishes that will optimize the construction times and will make easier the aim of being an nZEB (nearly Zero Energy Building). These are the essential features that characterize this administrative building for Research and Transfer to society.
The Center will be part of the building complex promoted by the Port Authority together with the University of Cádiz, an emblematic action for the city and both administrations. The UCA-SEA Innovation Center is designed as a cubic volume, with a square plan of 25,15m each side, three storeys and an accesible roof top for services maintenance. The future complex will be made up of three buildings, characterized by a vitreous envelope and interconnected with skyways. Therefore, it respects the constructive and image guidelines of the architectural ensemble as indicated in the report of the base design. The aim is to look like the east wing of the port, where the containers are accumulated.
The functional program of the UCA-SEA Innovation Center will fundamentally aim to attend the contents derived from the concession obtained by the European Union from the role of coordinator or leader in the European University of the Seas (SEA-EU) project. The objective, as described in the report of the base design, “is to be a reference for the role of the University of Cádiz in the Bay of Algeciras and its connection with research and teaching in aspects related to ports and maritime transport”. Our proposal respects, reordering the floor plan previously defined, the distribution of the functional program in the different levels of the building, made up of laboratory areas, administrative areas and spaces for teaching.
The project maintains, in general, the floor heights of the base design, allowing suspended ceilings of generous dimensions and having sufficient thickness under the flooring to allow the installation of a data and power outlet system. At the same time, it provides services shafts for the different facilities and the space for restrooms has been increased with the new distribution. A certain number of operable windows are also provided to allow access to the maintenance galleries of the curtain wall.