Ruiz Community Center / bgp arquitectura
Ruiz Community Center / bgp arquitectura
Text description provided by the architects. The Community Development Center project aims to be a place to attend the necessities of a high marginated area by offering educational, legal and medical services, and a community dining room; it also could be used as a distribution point for food and supplies in case of natural disasters. The project is organized in three parallel volumes in an East-West orientation to reduce sun exposition directly on the facades and the heat gain it implies, and it is distributed in one single level to guarantee universal accessibility.
The constructive process in all the building uses handcrafted brick produced in the area to support local economy. The brick is exposed as a finished wall to reduce the construction and maintenance costs of the building through the years. The concrete reinforcement elements of the building are also covered in brick to maintain the visual continuity of the surfaces
The floors are in exposed concrete and are part of the same structural foundation slab. The ceiling is made with catalan vaults, also in brick, with a superior concrete slab protecting the brick from any kind of deterioration or weathering. The project is providing support to everyday activities for the people in the area and to any contingency for all the community while looking to improve the urban development in the town.
In a highly marginated area in the middle of the mountains and far away from main cities, the project proposes a complex that can be used as a supplier point for basic products – food, water, medicines – and services to the area, being also a shelter to people in conditions of violence – by the family or the town – and to provide support in case of risk or emergency situations. Besides, it offers a first medical contact clinic. El constructive process and materials were selected to allow that the same inhabitants of this place in the country could participate as suppliers of material or in the construction of the building, this looking to keep the benefits of the project not only in a social level but also in the economy of the town.
