romera y ruiz arquitectos: puzzle piece

‘puzzle piece’ by romera y ruiz arquitectos, TM, spainimage © juan correa

spanish architecture firm romera y ruiz arquitectos has won ‘best new and old building’ at the world architecture festival awards 2011 with ‘puzzle piece’ a canopy structure designed for the la herradura school. the covered solution is placed within the existing children’s courtyard generating naturally ventilated areas providing protection from the sun and rain for outdoor games. the organic form is inserted into the old enclosure leaving enough space to let light flood the interior walls as it extends over the paths between the classes, dining-room and main entrance.

suspended from the existing roof to minimize the number of pillars needed for support, the 60 cubic meters of reinforced poured concrete slab changes in thickness from 20 to 30 centimeters. the metallic posts are colored like the surrounding vertical surfaces giving the illusion of them blending into the background.

interior courtyard image © juan correa colored pillars image © juan correa

light flooding interior wallsimage © juan correa

exterior view of suspended canopy image © juan correa

rendering of concept image © juan correa

site plan

key plan / section

plans / sections

sections

concept diagrams for rain and circulation

concept diagrams for sunlight and circulation

all images courtesy of world architecture festival.