José María Sánchez completed the Ring - The Technification Centre houses with an expanded programme for research, training and sports practice connected with nature.
Its privileged location, on a peninsula and next to the edge of the Gabriel y Galán reservoir, determines its shape, a great ring raised above the ground, with a seven-metre centreline and two hundred metres in diameter and a steel structure, while a steel façade reflects the colours and the light of the different seasons and times of the day, integrating it into its surroundings.
The project is structured on the basis of a ring-shaped geometry formed from two concentric circles, between which the entire programme diversity of the centre and its facilities is connected. This ring adapts to the limits marked by the non-floodable level of -387 metres. This perfect geometric shape preserves the interior from the whole landscape that needs to be conserved in the peninsula: it is a magic circle that arranges all the action, activities and movement on the exterior; the interior is for rest, observation and reflection.
The ring helps to create a suitable environment, it is as respectful as possible towards the place and avoids visual and physical barriers while integrating into surroundings of high environmental and landscape value as neutrally as possible. The visual differentiation between ring and terrain is produced by a line of shadow below the building, which varies in the course of the day.
The façade is continuous in its entire perimeter. It is a ventilated façade made from prefab steel elements. The finishing sheet metal is a pleated fifty-centimetre piece with a stainless steel finish. The roof is flat and fully accessible, built as an additional forging based on metallic girders and forging in collaborating sheet metal. It operates as a ring-shaped promenade at a level of 396.65 metres that provides a full view of everything that occurs on the peninsula and its surroundings.
