2009 NOVELDA (Alicante)

Youth
Centre

The Casal de la Juventud youth was the result of a public survey of the Participatory Budgets of Novelda. The survey reflected demands for a physical place addressed to certain age groups in order to carry out cultural and leisure activities in a targeted or controlled manner. We proposed the rehabilitation of the old school, based on the principles of the circular economy and specifically, architectural recycling. The project was developed as a public space capable of responding to new social demands that go beyond mere leisure. We focused on creating a building that would maintain its identity, embodying the population’s historical memory, and at the same time that would open up its walls. We thus broke up the old courtyard to create a new space of social confluence. New dynamic spaces that generate intersecting visions, with interiors that invite culture and tranquillity and exteriors that broaden the possibilities of social exchange. A single backlit skin blankets the different sections, organising them and prioritising their access points and flows. They thus turn into one more street, like an old village’s through-road.

The Casal de la Juventud youth was the result of a public survey of the Participatory Budgets of Novelda. The survey reflected demands for a physical place addressed to certain age groups in order to carry out cultural and leisure activities in a targeted or controlled manner. We proposed the rehabilitation of the old school, based on the principles of the circular economy and specifically, architectural recycling. The project was developed as a public space capable of responding to new social demands that go beyond mere leisure. We focused on creating a building that would maintain its identity, embodying the population’s historical memory, and at the same time that would open up its walls. We thus broke up the old courtyard to create a new space of social confluence. New dynamic spaces that generate intersecting visions, with interiors that invite culture and tranquillity and exteriors that broaden the possibilities of social exchange. A single backlit skin blankets the different sections, organising them and prioritising their access points and flows. They thus turn into one more street, like an old village’s through-road.

The Casal de la Juventud youth was the result of a public survey of the Participatory Budgets of Novelda. The survey reflected demands for a physical place addressed to certain age groups in order to carry out cultural and leisure activities in a targeted or controlled manner. We proposed the rehabilitation of the old school, based on the principles of the circular economy and specifically, architectural recycling. The project was developed as a public space capable of responding to new social demands that go beyond mere leisure. We focused on creating a building that would maintain its identity, embodying the population’s historical memory, and at the same time that would open up its walls. We thus broke up the old courtyard to create a new space of social confluence. New dynamic spaces that generate intersecting visions, with interiors that invite culture and tranquillity and exteriors that broaden the possibilities of social exchange. A single backlit skin blankets the different sections, organising them and prioritising their access points and flows. They thus turn into one more street, like an old village’s through-road.