THE LOCUS

The Ribeira Social Center, is located in the rural village of Oleiros part of the town of Ribeira in Galicia, Spain. A site marked by the rural character of the buildings that surround it. A place built during centuries by the expertise of many generations who understood that the landscape as its first element of identity.

THE PUBLIC SPACE

The definition of the public space is a key element of the project. The project tries not just to build another object in the rural landscape, if not creating a public space for the community. A public space that serves to accommodate different kinds of social functions, especially important in a rural area where the public is almost limited to the roads around and its intersections.

For this strategy the project breaks the program into two separate volumes that complement each other to achieve some kind of relationship.

THE VERSATILE

The social center aims to achieve a building that can accommodate different type of uses and also uses that may change over time. The bigger volume houses a multipurpose space divisible by sliding panels that manage to divide it down into smaller spaces that can function as classrooms of different sizes for different activities. The smaller volume on the south edge of the lot, houses an office space for various associations.

Under the principle that the building could change its function even on the same day, the furniture has been designed to be easily stackable and storable in order to adapt easily to the different uses of a social center -conferences, classes, workshops, exhibitions- without for it having to change its basic structure.

Material:

We have made a great effort to avoid using finishes. The building has been constructed with materials with vocation of authenticity, eliminating all traces of finish or superimposed element.

In short it has sought to achieve a versatile building around a public space in an area where the public is an extraneous element. CENTRO SOCIAL DE RIBEIRA