HOTEL+SOCIAL

The void left in the heart of a neighborhood when a school closes is difficult to fill. This was the case with this 1970s school, built according to the same standards as many others of its time in southeastern Spain. When the educational program was relocated, the life and activity once linked to the school disappeared, leaving behind an empty building at the center of the neighborhood. 

The project focuses on rehabilitating the building not only from an energy standpoint, but also from a programmatic and social one. The former school has been turned into a Hotel + Social, a place designed to host different community associations and to offer services both to the neighborhood and to the wider municipality. In this way, what was once an urban leftover becomes an active and essential piece of the urban fabric — a space that generates activity throughout the day and brings vitality back to its residential surroundings. It is a public space that promotes an environmentally conscious approach to construction and stands out within the urban grid thanks to its material and constructive strategies, consolidating itself as a true landmark in the neighborhood’s landscape. 

The most significant intervention was the addition of a new ventilated wooden façade — a pine “animal print” that wraps the entire first floor. This lightweight skin appears to lift off the ground, creating the image of a suspended volume that activates the environment both socially and culturally. The new envelope not only enhances the building’s resilience, but also updates its performance, adapting each orientation to solar conditions through porches and vertical louvers while improving thermal insulation. The remaining materials reinforce the project’s commitment to sustainability and circularity: linoleum floors, OSB wall finishes, and recycled elements from the original school such as fencing and ground-floor protections. The design also promotes natural ventilation, both through the layout of the rooms and the inclusion of a solar chimney that enhances the building’s bioclimatic behavior. Finally, special attention is given to the renaturalization of the outdoor space, freeing up the old schoolyard, planting new trees and vegetation, and completing the strategy with a green roof that improves thermal inertia and biodiversity. 

Ultimately, the project becomes a statement of intent: to demonstrate that the public realm can — and must — be exemplary at every level. It is an architecture conceived for citizens, for the neighborhood, and for the city; for people and for the natural environment alike. A building that aspires to be beautiful, accessible, and efficient, combining memory and future to reactivate urban life from the heart of the neighborhood.

Location:  Cartagena
Client:  Ayuntamiento de Cartagena
Scale:  L
Program:  community centre
Status:  completed

Architecture: meii

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

Construction:  MGM Construcciones

Photography:  Hiperfocal