Construction of a multi-purpose building for Miguel Hernández University of Elche’s Altea campus

The Altea Campus is one of the four making up the Miguel Hernández University of Elche and hosts its Faculty of Fine Arts and Art Department. The facilities needed a building for a range of purposes which has been dubbed Mascarat and is a two-storey block with a mixed structure and a facing brick façade. The project also included the HVAC equipment and centralised management system.  

The architectural design’s robust body is tempered by curved spaces and arrangements which offset the aggressiveness of a prismatic building with orthogonal edges.  

The curvatures foster indoor and outdoor spatial continuity and visually alter the user’s perception. The building’s interior passageways are visible from the outside through large windows that allow natural light to flood in.

The textured façade with white facing brick is a crucial factor in the perception of the building because it presents an interplay of layouts in which the bricks emerge perpendicular to the plane of the façade in the solid parts and hollowed out in the areas with a courtyard. This same texture veils the façade openings and dissipates the abrupt break caused by the few openings in the façade except at the entrances, bay windows and the exhibition hall display window.  

Terrazzo tile-based paving has been used on the inside and extends to the outer perimeter area to enhance the relationship between the building and its immediate surroundings.