Contracting authority: University of Malaga

The project of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UMA consists of refurbishing a new lecture hall to maximise the teaching capacity of the centre, as well as other actions to remodel the existing facilities to modernise them and improve their operability.

The first action consists of constructing the new lecture hall, which will have two basements and three floors above ground, located in the southwest area of the building, where the car park was previously located. The structure of the building allows for creating a mixed space in a public/private transition zone. In addition, this Plaza Building has an innovative rainwater harvesting system that will be used for irrigation and toilets.

To facilitate access to the new building, the faculty’s lecture hall will be demolished to open up wide access to the new lecture hall from the axis around which all the faculty’s spaces are distributed.

Secondly, the intervention is carried out in one of the single-storey teaching classroom modules for its partial reform through reconfiguring its spaces, adding stairs and a lift to extend one storey above the existing one, and providing it with a new envelope.

Finally, in the third action, the cafeteria of the medical centre, located next to one of the towers on the ground floor, will be refurbished to increase its usable surface area.

Construction of a new state-of-the-art educational centre

In line with its commitment to sustainability and excellence, Sando integrates the latest techniques and quality materials in constructing the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UMA.

To strengthen the existing infrastructure, it carries out actions such as installing carbon fibre in the reinforcement of the waffle slab of the first floor in Module B or dismantling the existing roof structure for its extension by one floor.

For the new structures, the inclusion of elements such as: a concrete diaphragm wall made of rammed earth and permanent anchors, or the post-tensioned waffle slab made of lightened polystyrene or recoverable cassettes, concrete slabs or metal profile structure, in addition to more conventional systems, is carried out.

It is worth mentioning the double-skin façade, made up of a fixed lattice composed of polythene bars with a diameter of 15 millimetres screwed to metal bushes inserted in the walkway. An innovative solution will allow the façade to generate a ventilated chamber, helping reduce the building’s energy consumption and giving the centre a more modern appearance.