The project started in 2017 with the fit out to transform the newly built Palmera Montero Civic Center into the new business faculty of the Mondragón University in Irún (Gipuzkoa). The faculty will house two university degrees that employ innovative learning dynamics; LEINN (Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship) and myGADE (Business Administration and Management).
The main idea for this new faculty is that the communal spaces in an educational environment are also spaces to generate knowledge. These spaces are as important as classrooms or meeting rooms. They are experimental spaces, where students can study, work, exchange knowledge and relax. All the partitions are made with modular furniture that allow various functions to be carried out; they are spaces for exhibition, rest, discussion, experimentation and work.
Spaces that, specifically in the LEINN degree, enhance and facilitate the learning experience, and not only in classrooms but also in those spaces where “non-academic” learning arises and where “things happen”: in the corridors, meeting rooms, reading points, etc. And along these lines, in the myGADE degree, a “Plaza” is created as an open community space in addition to the classrooms.
The furniture is modular and flexible. It has been designed using opaque, transparent and translucent materials to adapt to the different spaces of classrooms, workshop rooms and meeting rooms that require different degrees of privacy and transparency.
Regarding the spatial identity of the Irún Campus, we worked together with the users on those values with which they feel identified in order to process and transform them into spatial design, making them visible in the space so that users can take ownership of the spaces. A series of colored lines were created on both the wall and the ceiling that run through and connect the spaces and when they meet, they highlight the key concepts related to the two university degrees that the building houses.
