Detail of the project ed. 2016

cole­­gio-may­or-inter­­na­­cional-bida­­soa-bida­­soa-inter­­na­­tion­al-sem­i­­nary / Rubén J Labi­ano, Architect

Design­er  Rubén J Labiano
Loca­tion  CIZUR MENOR, NAVAR­RA, SPAIN
Design Team  

Rubén J. Labi­ano Novoa, PhD Architect
Jesús Bazal Cor­rales, PhD Architect
Year  2011
Pho­to credits  

Pedro Pege­naute, Photographer

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

Pro­mot­ed by a foun­da­tion com­mit­ted to the pro­mo­tion of cul­ture, the Main Chapel of the Cole­gio Ecle­siás­ti­co Inter­na­cional ‘Bida­soa’ (Bida­soa Inter­na­tion­al Sem­i­nary) is in Cizur Menor, a Span­ish vil­lage next to Pam­plona uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus. The plot is placed in an ele­vat­ed slop­ing area over­look­ing the Elorz Riv­er, the rail­way and a the high­way. The sem­i­nary is very clear from the for­mal point of view: a lon­gi­tu­di­nal lay­out for the the rooms, and a plinth for the com­mon areas. Over the plinth emerge the two vol­umes of chapels ori­ent­ed towards the east.
The Main Chapel has a direct access from the “clois­ter”, a space with an over­whelm­ing mate­r­i­al and for­mal inten­si­ty expres­sive of its spir­i­tu­al iden­ti­ty. There are two par­al­lel chapels sep­a­rat­ed by the sac­risty. Two dif­fer­ent ambiances con­fig­ured by GRC, wood and plas­ters walls. The fig­u­ra­tive iconog­ra­phy, made by the sculp­tor Javier Viv­er, is made in GRC and resins, images pyro­graphed in sil­ver leaf. The hall per­mits the cir­cu­la­tions clois­ter-chapel-sac­risty and along the con­fes­sion­al box­es and book­cas­es. A solu­tion of a cov­er­ing with the base of metal­lic truss recov­ered infe­ri­or­ly by a ceil­ing dashed with lou­vers or tim­bers of per­fo­rat­ed acoustic wood. A big open­ing above the north of the chapel guar­an­tees the pen­e­tra­tion of a nat­ur­al light with­out a direct radi­a­tion from the sun. On the part of the sanc­tu­ary, an open­ing with light­ing from an out­er patio per­mits a direct ven­ti­la­tion. The entrance of the light is sift­ed through plates of alabaster incor­po­rat­ed on the glass. The floor of the nave is slight­ly inclined. The sanc­tu­ary is ele­vat­ed to accen­tu­ate its vis­i­bil­i­ty and cen­tral­i­ty. The choir loft forms a ‘L’. A ceil­ing is acces­si­ble for main­te­nance. The sac­risty in between the two chapels to facil­i­tate an eas­i­er con­nec­tion and a bet­ter acoustic iso­la­tion in case of a simul­ta­ne­ous use. The small chapel is adorned with rel­a­tive­ly sim­ple mate­ri­als and keeps the old clas­sic baroque retable.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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