The original image is not a shape, but a landscape. The granite outcrops surrounding Cáceres, and the activity that shaped them over centuries — quarrying — give rise to a building that does not attempt to camouflage itself or impose itself, but rather to understand the logic of the site on which it stands.
The plot has level changes of up to four meters, an underground stream running through it, and existing conditions that shape both its position and geometry. The proposal does not ignore any of these constraints. It turns them into design decisions.
The building is split into two wings to respond simultaneously to the multi-purpose building and to Avenida de la Universidad. The corner between them is resolved not with a volume, but with a void — a plaza that serves as an access and gathering space, drawing on the tradition of the reception courtyard found in traditional agrarian architecture. The laboratories face east and south, and always benefit from dual natural lighting thanks to courtyards that also allow for cross ventilation and ease the layout of building services. The west façade, most exposed to solar radiation, is deliberately opaque and closed.
The façade is built with prefabricated concrete panels with a rough texture (the block freshly cut from the quarry, before being worked) complemented by adjustable anodized aluminum louvers positioned according to each opening’s exposure. The roof is ventilated and dissipates close to 90% of incident solar radiation, a critical factor at this latitude. The materials are left exposed throughout, using only industrialized components with long service life and minimal maintenance requirements. The building services are designed in modular, zoned systems to accommodate any future changes. Rainwater is collected, channeled through drainage trenches to an underground cistern, and reused to irrigate the entire plot, which is planted with native Mediterranean forest species.
In short, a building that looks to its surroundings before looking at itself.