Disability Integral Assistance Centre Caidis Las Hayas

Location:  Sarriguren (Navarra)

Client:          Navarre Social Affaires,Family, Youth and Sport

The new Disability Integral Assistance Centre CAIDIS Las Hayas is located at the end of Sarriguren Bioclimatic City, on the outskirts of Pamplona. The building is aimed at people with severe psychic disability, all of them handicapped and some bedridden; it will be the residents´ home and the place where they will spend most of their life, therefore both comfort and kindness in the building as well as control of privacy and intimacy are a must.

The project´s volumetry reflects the character of the site as a boundary between the city and it´s rural surroundings, exploring both it´s public and private condition. On the one side, the lineal building is adjusted to the Eco-city´s straight lined roads, and is a support to the sequence of residential pavilions. The L-turned form of this units allows for a better orientation (North-South), the maximum benefit of its inside area, conforming at the same time secluded patios with vision control from the exterior. These elements deal with topography as an element on their favour, anchoring in the ground against the slope, with the aim of generating their own controlled environment.

Each of the patios counts with its own character. The one closest to the entrance looks at the day centre and at the multi-use room that rises at the end as a mode of vertical perspective for the complex. The next two form a more contemplative surrounding, and the last one is both a playground and an exterior living space, containing a grand porch that finally shapes the building´s lateral facade.

The North facade is dealt with through a latticework or visual filter, formed by a double skin of micro laminated wood pieces and coloured glass. On the one side it helps avoiding the viewing of the activities in the inside and on the other it qualifies and livens the views from the interior thanks to the play of colours.

The use of colour has determined the conception of the interior, since it allows the residents to identify the various areas in the building and their own rooms, modifies the sensation of depth at the different spaces and favours the stimulation of their senses.