Osa de la vega school

“ALONSO QUIJANO” SCHOOL

Location:  C/ Fray Luis de León, Osa de la Vega, Cuenca

Owner: Castile-La Mancha Regional Government, Department of Education and Science in Cuenca.

Design: José Enrique Fombella Guillem

Date: 2008-2009

The design won the first prize in the public design competition organised by the Castile-La Mancha Regional Government’s Department of Education and Science for the expansion and refurbishment of an old and ugly local school in the town centre.

The refurbishment was approached in the same way that a surgeon operates to save what he can and remove anything whose condition, function or appearance renders it useless, in a difficult balance between the financially possible and the architecturally valid.

A drastic change was made to alter not only the internal layout but, above all, the façades. Horizontal, galvanised profiles were designed as a second skin that occasionally provides openings for windows, enhances safety and affords protection from the sun, giving the building a neutral, functional and clean appearance.

The building has not yet been built, despite the austere financial proposal.