The Germina Foundation is an organization dedicated to assisting in the integration and complementary learning of children at risk of social exclusion. The building program of its new headquarters had to integrate the spaces for the three different age groups, as well as common areas and offices of the foundation. This unification of different uses is expressed from the beginning in the organization of its program, given shape with two premises on the first floor and a building between them.
With an austere exterior character and a tight budget, the building seeks a balance between its honest presence in a degraded environment, where it should not stand out pretentiously but rather integrate and blend in, while providing a warm interior welcoming place that is perceived by the children as their second home.
The façade looking over the street signals its non-residential character by means of a singular two-story scale – mostly of sprayed mortar – while the courtyard façade opens onto a controlled and protected space with practicable sunshades.
Client: Fundación Germina
b720 Team: Fermín Vázquez, Peco Mulet, Elisabet Uson, Luis Bellera, Albert Freixes
Photography: Marc Goodwin, Rafael Vargas