LA PÉRGOLA

In La Unión, the municipal sports centre is much more than a sports facility. Known by everyone simply as El Poli, it is one of the town’s main meeting places: an everyday space where sport, leisure and social life come together, bringing residents of all ages together each day.

The intervention was conceived with a clear objective: to give a new identity to a place that was already a local landmark, demonstrating how, through precise interventions and a limited budget, it is possible to transform the perception of an entire environment.

The project is structured around two main interventions, based on different yet complementary strategies: El Poli and La Pérgola.

LA PÉRGOLA

The second intervention transforms an energy infrastructure into a piece of architecture. The need to generate as much solar energy as possible becomes a design tool, defining a recognisable geometry that gives the complex a new identity while providing shade to the football pitch stands.

The roof begins with a rectangular footprint corresponding exactly to the area that needs to be protected. From this base, the optimal south-facing orientation of the solar panels and the inclination required for the latitude of La Unión generate a sequence of sloping planes that create a distinctive sawtooth profile. The form is not the result of an arbitrary formal decision, but rather the direct consequence of energy efficiency.

Built as a three-dimensional steel structure and clad in blue metal sheeting, the pergola changes in appearance depending on the incidence of light, establishing a dialogue with the ceramic façade of the main building. The result is a structure that, in addition to supplying energy to the sports complex, transforms a purely functional infrastructure into a recognisable element within its everyday landscape.

Location:  La Unión
Client:  Ayuntamiento de La Unión
Scale:  S
Program:  roof
Status:  completed

Architecture: meii

Team: Elvira Carrión, Jose Mª Mateo, Javier Albacete, Andrea Sanabria, Juan Antonio Abril

Construction:  Gruexma

Photography:  Hiperfocal