A ventilated courtyard

The architects’ studio Alonso Saezmiera & González Ayo executes mainly residential and public projects. Their work in the healthcare, outpatient and hospitals stands out. In this regard, we want to highlight the work done at the Health Centre of the Miribilla area of Bilbao, which they executed in 2015.

In this work, they were assisted by Umetal, who on the base of a façade ventilated with metal slats, applied their experience and technology to raise the appearance of the façade of the courtyard of the health centre to an aesthetic design level, which in this case evokes the appearance of being surrounded by plants, but with infinite possibilities.

UMETAL thus transformed a normal space into another, singular one by giving it originality and colour. It is Umetal’s work: to turn façades into unique designs offered by architects who want to depart from monotony in their work.

It was this artistic concept that the architects had in mind them choosing Umetal to decorate the ventilated façade that covers the courtyard.

The ventilated façade system is a multilayer enclosure that resolves the full enclosure rapidly, economically, effectively and flexibly.

Because it is a multilayer system, it offers very good comfort and insulation performance at a similar cost to that of a conventional vertical enclosure, with infinitely superior on-site attachment and ease of control performance.

Its most significant feature is its ability to save runtime in work and to significantly reduce costs. In addition, it offers direct benefits over air conditioning and thermal “health” of the building, so that it has a positive effect on the environment.

And it can already be seen at Calle Mina San Luís 16, where the equipment premises are that house the Health Centre and Outpatients’ Clinic of Miribilla.

The new health centre inaugurated in 2016 serves more than 11,000 residents, of whom 22 per cent are minors, so it will expand the paediatric service with a total of four paediatric surgeries and paediatric nursing, as well as midwifery and childbirth classes.