CEU Polytechnic Building at the Montepríncipe Campus
Architects
Sol89. María González & Juanjo López de la Cruz
Collaborators
Cristóbal Galocha, Jongjin Lee, Jaime Fernández, architects; Rigoberto Acevedo, architecture student
Client
Universidad CEU San Pablo
The uses to be developed in the new building form a program almost entirely dedicated to two main activities: teaching and departmental functions, with other complementary uses remaining within the current Polytechnic School.
We understand this differentiated program condition as the key argument for defining the building’s location, its functional organization, and its connection to the campus. We place the departmental area at the lowest level of the site, aligned with the central plaza of the campus. We take advantage of the natural topography of the plot to establish a base structure embedded into the terrain, remaining partially underground and shielded from the parking areas. This departmental base—a square with 49-meter sides and a single floor—clarifies the northeastern part of the campus, making it a central element around which other buildings and native landscaping are arranged. We envision this area as one closely linked to research, to focused contemplation, and to a certain sense of seclusion, where the construction is warm and solid, complemented by light from courtyards and clerestories.
On top of this departmental platform sits the new building, exclusively for teaching. This emerging volume functions as a bridge connecting the two levels of the campus. It can be accessed from the base or directly from the current Polytechnic building via an elevated walkway that enters the structure. This second element is a clear and precise building, with a lighter construction, where teachers and students meet in transparent spaces. The distant view is filtered by a second thermal skin that softens the sunlight and supports vegetation growing in the courtyards that link the upper and lower levels. The roof unfolds to create a more generous section that captures northern light and expands the spatiality of the design studios, recognizing the project site as a space of experimentation with its own character.
