New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Project category

Identify the award category for which this project is being submitted
Regaining a sense of belonging

Email user
arquitectura@vdparquitectos.com

Basic information
Project title
Youth Center and Theater

Full Project Title
Youth Center and Theater for El Rosario (Spain)

Please provide a short, catchy description of your project to be used in communication towards the public.
Architectural project for mixed cultural and educational use with capacity for multifunctional spaces, built with the aim of being a social and cultural nucleus of the site. A formal planning axis similar to traditional agricultural techniques is used in order to avoid a violent landscape break with its environment, while providing it with an identity linked to the local culture.

What was the geographical scope of your project?
Local

Where was your project implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Spain

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Tenerife, El Rosario (municipality of Tenerife)

Canary Islands, Spain

Does your project address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your project refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

Has your project benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your project won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Is your project fully completed
Yes

Please indicate a date (mm/yy)
2010-01-14

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As an individual
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project).
- First name: Cristina
  Last name: González Vázquez de Parga
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Spain
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Glorieta Pedro de Mendoza 6, 4F
  Town: Santa Cruz de Tenerife
  Postal code: 38005
  Country: Spain
  Direct Tel: +34 922 21 32 81
  E-mail: administracion@vdparquitectos.com
  Website: https://vdparquitectos.com
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
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In case my project is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my project in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
Press

Description of the project
Please provide a summary of your project.
The building fits into the hillside with a terraced solution in accordance with the traditional way of using land in rural areas, thus avoiding a sharp break with the surrounding landscape in which it is located. The program is developed on 3 levels to suit the slope, with most surfaces developed underground at basement level in order to minimize the impact of the visible volumes of the building, thereby responding to the problem of having to develop a high construction rate in a very low density urban area with many rural remnants.
Above-ground lies the use of the Youth Center and below is located the theatre. The building volume is organized in an L shape, back to the Northeast wind, using the volume of the theatre curtains box as wind protection, thus allowing the terrace on the roof of the theatre to be an area protected from prevailing winds, with good basking in winter and with magnificent sea views. The Youth Center facilities are organized in 3 autonomous colored cubes and in a multipurpose space that can be partitioned at will by sliding panels. On the facade, lattice strips of colored acrylic glass protect from the morning sun. The theater is located on the 2 levels below, having public access at ground floor level and with access to stage and dressing rooms in the basement.

Please indicate the main themes of your project with 5 key words.
Adaptation

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Landscaping

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Community

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Educational

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Cultural

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
The main goal of the project is to provide the community of El Rosario with public spaces by introducing a building for cultural and educational use.
With regard to the adaptation to the site, the topographical singularity of the plot in which it is located, with a difference of 5 meters, has been taken into account and with the particularity of being part of a complex of municipal endowments and at the same time being located in a rural area of low density, which has generated the search for an architectural solution that is delicate with the landscape and has a reduced volumetric impact. It has also taken into account the vegetation existing in the area that is native flora. The orientation of the plot has also been studied, with intense sunlight from the east, and coinciding the views that are enjoyed towards the sea with the southeast orientation, and the prevailing winds of the Northeast have also been taken into account.
The building has adequate means to supply the planned hygienic equipment with water suitable for consumption in a sustainable manner, providing sufficient flows for its operation, without altering the properties of fitness for consumption and preventing possible returns that may contaminate the network, incorporating means that allow saving and control of water.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Volumetrically, all efforts have been directed to avoid a violent landscaping of the building with its surroundings. For this, the requested volume fits into the existing slope with a battered solution that respects the traditional way of occupying the territory in the rural area. The program conforms to this stepping and is developed in 3 levels adapted to the slope of the land, with most of the building developed in basement to reduce the visible volumetry to the maximum. This is the answer to the initial problem: to develop a high volumetric building in a rustic area in transition to urban zoning that presents a low density and many rural vestiges.
Over-grazing, the building is organized to get maximum spatial profitability, both internally and externally. In the basement is the Theater and set on this is the use of Youth House, which takes advantage of the cover of the theater as a square. The volumes are organized closed in L towards the Northeast, using the curtain box of the theater as a screen to the wind, which allows that the square located on the cover of the theater is protected from the dominant wind, with good sunning in winter and with magnificent views of the sea, being able to host leisure activities, such as workshops or summer cinema. The Youth Center program itself is developed in 3 independent cubes of colors and in a multipurpose space that is compartmentalized at will by mobile panels. This space has a lattice of slats made with colored methacrylate, conceived as a protection to the low sun of the morning. The theater is located on 2 levels, with public access to hall from ground floor and with access to stage and dressing rooms in basement.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
The project has been since its conception phase focusing on a universal design that guarantees the accessibility of people as an inalienable right, this being one of the philosophical principles of the study.
The building has been proposed as an environment for all, regardless of the capacities or age of the users.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project
The project has been carried out with constant communication with technicians attached to the youth sector, representatives of the City of El Rosario, as well as with the Ministry of Youth, Education and Women of the Island Council of Tenerife.
This contact and collaboration has allowed the enrichment of the project and has been of great help, generating a consensus project by all parties.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the project. Please highlight what the added value of their engagement was.
The project has been promoted by the Youth Section of the Tenerife Island Council, at the regional level, in conjunction with the Town Hall of El Rosario, municipality of the same island, at a local level.

The basic program of the project was defined in conjunction with the Island Council, which reached a common goal after different meetings with technical representatives of the Youth, Education and Women Sector of the institution.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your project. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was.
As an architecture project, different technical disciplines have participated in its design and implementation process.

Architectural design, urbanism, industrial engineering, education and social studies in the field of youth have been part of the project development, cooperating in order to establish clear development objectives, ensuring the achievement of the desired results.

Please give information on the results, outcomes and impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for. This includes also benefits from the project for direct and indirect beneficiaries
The Youth Center and Theater, known today as the Youth Center of El Chorrillo has become an expressive space in which temporary exhibitions and youth projects are generated. An example of these activities is the Espabilé Project, an insular scale youth participation project; in addition to Island Council’s Formative Pills.

On the other hand, it is also a social space in meetings of study, reading and leisure take place, in an environment of scarce public space adapted to these activities.

Please provide documents showing the results, outcomes and impacts of your project
PDF
PDF
- pdf-1-4404.pdf
Please highlight the innovative character of the project, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the project
By focusing the project in the user, it has been taken into account that the need to introduce an endowment of public and cultural use is accompanied by an environment with a scarce open space, therefore, present the building with an outdoor plaza, placed on the roof of the theatre, reinforces the character of the building as a public use for all people.

To this is added a design focused on social inclusion and accessibility; and the formalization adapted to the place and its rural historical heritage.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your project.
We work so that, buildings and public spaces are easily accessible, from the moment it´s being designed to the very end of its construction, understanding that accessibility must be irrevocably linked to the human-made constructed spaces, and that our environment must be, regardless of our disabilities, an environment for everyone, facilitating integration and acceptance.

To the extent that our environment allows the public use and enjoyment, people with disabilities will be able to make use of the amenities and spaces that they cannot access today. Their independency will be greater, increasing their vital opportunities. Once having overcome architectural barriers that impede mobility, sharing the city with disabled citizens will become more common and natural. Furthermore, learning how to coexist cooperatively with the subject of disability will be the best and most natural approach to de-stigmatize those disabled.

We understand that accessibility is an advantage for everyone, that everyone at some point in their lives is susceptible to some kind of disability and that, accessibility is the equivalence to comfort in the ambiance of mobility.

We also work to make accessibility unperceived, that all help is invisible or imperceptibly added, but forms and integrates naturally in the design of the building and/or the environment. In our projects we make accessibility criteria design criteria, so that ramps, rails, special pavements, colour contrasts, soft surfaces, etc… form part of the building from its initial design.

Please describe which elements of your project could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and context. This may involve for example aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings etc.
It is an exemplary public building in terms of its adaptation to the place and its culture, in addition to combining the use of Youth Center and Multifunctional Public Space, allowing simultaneous use of its facilities regardless of whether the Youth Center is open or not.

This makes it a reference when integrating architectural pieces that can serve as regenerative elements of a disused urban environment.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the project addresses by providing local solutions
The project addresses the global sustainable development goal of building more inclusive, safer, resilient and sustainable cities. Its main objective is to provide the population of El Rosario with a safe, accessible and inclusive public space for all people, regardless of gender, age or disability.

Its application at the local level allows it to serve as a reference for nearby municipalities, which can adopt its solutions in order to introduce their own social nucleus as urban regeneration.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images (or other types of visual representations, if images are not possible) to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the project and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary.
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their projects, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted project, is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes