Health Sciences and Laboratories Research Building

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 2015 · Authors: ACH Arquitectos

Located on the southern flank of the city of Las Palmas, in a context defined by the urban voids that gave rise to the San Cristóbal University Campus, the bold volumetry of these buildings designed by ACH Arquitectos, a studio formed by technicians Carlos Ardanaz, Juan Carlos Cabrera and Lisandro Hernández, stands out.

The complex features two distinct buildings: the first intended for departmental, administrative and support uses for teaching and research (departments, library, video library, study room); the second, larger, is dedicated to research and includes laboratories of different sizes with their complementary support spaces. Both volumes are connected perpendicularly.

In the building constructed to house the laboratories, the exterior stands out with its permeable, variable and heterogeneous grid. The façade is built with aluminium profiles arranged according to two modular patterns and in eight shades: six different shades of grey, white and black as the colour scale. This plane acts as a lattice that protects the delicate interior spaces from the sun. 

The combination of form, arrangement and colour gives the building a variable image depending on the light, the state of the sky or the orientation of the lattice, transforming its appearance with permeable and changing images throughout the day and seasons.

The works on the complexes began in 2011 and were completed in 2015.

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