The project involved developing a school on a very small plot of land: a plot of about 630m2 on which a roof of about 700m2 had to be built. This plot was located at the end of an existing sports court that was to be used as the school playground. The school's surroundings were made up, to the west, of the facilities of a football field and, to the east, a sector of single-family houses separated from the school space by a passageway only three metres wide. Virtually all the openings have been located on the south and north sides. Thus, the main visual axes through the building follow the longitudinal axis of the site, in the direction where there is no interference from buildings (those of the football field or the single-family houses). In this way, the longest views are prioritised: some towards the forests and hills to the south of the village and others towards the stream and fields to the north. Both the layout of the main routes through the building (those leading to and from the school grounds and those of the staircase and interior hallways) and the design of the porch (set at different heights and where all the circulation routes converge) also aim to emphasise the views to the south and north. The main access to the school is via a ramp that runs tangent to the passageway. This ramp manages to cross the east façade without hardly altering it - just like a child who climbs under someone's skirt without lifting them. In this way, the façade maintains its appearance of a blank wall that embraces and closes off the access porch. The ramp, the blind volumes and the fence of the site of the east façade are intended to widen and enrich the public space of the passage and to provide access to both the school and the different playgrounds through the proposed porch. The formalisation of the east façade, with hardly any reference to stairs, is intended to give the building the public character it deserves.

The land on which we are working is a flat, elongated plot of 7,000m2 for cultivation, located on the outskirts of Santa Margarida de Montbui. The plot initially had a ruined building for agricultural use that we were commissioned to transform into a house. The regulations, which classified the pre-existing construction as a country house, meant that the original volumetry had to be respected, as well as the position of the holes in the façades. The volume had a direct relationship with the surroundings, without preamble in the transition from the countryside to the interior. The change of programme required the immediate surroundings of the house to be more enclosed and protected from a completely open plain, so one metre was excavated down to the level of the terrace that gives access to the house and connects it to the rest of the exterior development, which defines an artificial landscape that acts as a mediator between the house and the countryside. The functional programme is developed using stepped platforms that orbit around a central load-bearing core. This core, which acts as a large pillar, contains the installations and stairs, connecting all the rooms in the house. The centrality of this pillar allows the metal floor slabs to span smaller distances and, therefore, to be thinner, accentuating the contrast between the weight and the lightness of what it supports. The materiality of the house deepens this desire for contrast, so that the main load-bearing elements are rough, heavy and coarse, while the secondary elements and interior partitions have smoother surfaces, constructed with a light structure. The intervention has a chromatic palette of earthy tones that seeks to relate to the environment. The house is developed upwards as a succession of mezzanines of varying heights that ascend from the common areas towards the bedrooms, ending its journey on a balcony that projects towards the fields of cereal.