CEU San Pablo Faculty of Law

Jordi Costa — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 14:12:04 +0000

Architects: José María Sánchez García Photography: Luís Asín Roland Halbe Construction Period: 2026 Location: Madrid, Spain

The primary aim of the project for the new San Pablo CEU Law School is to reflect on human relationships and how they define a shared space. The spaces for circulation and interaction are reimagined, becoming places of opportunity.

“If anything characterizes the floor plan, it is the nature of human relationships, for the elements it depicts—walls, doors, windows, and staircases—are used first to divide and, later, to selectively bring together the inhabited space. But what is generally absent, even in the building illustrated in the greatest detail, is how the human figures will occupy that space.”
Robin Evans. Figures, Doors, and Passages

The project is based on a compact volume organized around a perimeter courtyard, which integrates the educational program and ensures adequate natural lighting and ventilation in all spaces. Thus, the building’s layout strategy begins with excavating the site to create a new garden level, surrounded by an outdoor living space. This approach defines the main entrance to the building, which is accessed via a walkway over the courtyard connecting Julián Romea Street to the ground floor.

A large central void connects the different floors via a series of cross-laminated timber terraces. In this way, a sequence of communal spaces—both on and beneath the terraces—facilitates spontaneous interaction among users. The atrium acts as a large heat exchanger, enabling natural air exchange; roof vents allow for natural ventilation during the spring and summer months.

The program is organized around four vertical circulation cores and a series of corridors surrounding the atrium. The ground floor houses the most public spaces; the garden, first, and second floors contain all the classrooms; and the top floor is home to the faculty areas and faculty offices.

Structurally, the project employs a hybrid system consisting of a cast-in-place concrete grid structure and a series of prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) elements—staircases and vertical panels—that define the building’s interior. The industrialization of the process allowed work to proceed simultaneously on-site and in the workshop, shortening construction timelines. This duality is also evident on the façade, where the exterior wooden joinery is assembled onto the structure. The order of the structural grid is occasionally disrupted by the introduction of a series of composite-section Vierendeel beams, located on alternate floors, which free up column-free, more open spaces housing the main auditorium, the entrance lobby, and classrooms with movable partitions.

In addition to the large energy chimney, which forms the central atrium, a series of vertical elements are incorporated to house ventilation and air supply for the classrooms, avoiding horizontal ducts and the need for drop ceilings, with the mechanical systems and acoustic panels left exposed.

Text provided by the architects.

La entrada CEU San Pablo Faculty of Law se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Tourist Inn in Luna Castle

Jordi Costa — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 09:10:01 +0000

Architects: José María Sánchez García Photography: Roland Halbe Construction Period: 2009 Location: Alburquerque, Spain

This project preserves, restores and enhances numerous architectural, historical and cultural components along with the heritage value of Luna Castle as a new Tourist Inn. To do so, we had to maintain its exterior and interior appearance, particularly its characteristic volume and profile, and try to avoid interferences between the residential uses of the inn and the cultural aspects of the castle. The operation was focused on the fortified line of the ‘Portuguese Precinct’, in the lower part of the castle. The project is resolved with a clear subtraction operation. The building is ‘excavated’ into the profile of the bastion, totally integrated into the existing structure without competing with the castle’s facade. This excavation contains the programme for the inn. It takes adventage of the proximity to the fortress and the priviledged views of the town and the surrounding countryside due to its hight altitude. We want guests to feel that they are inside the castle and its environment, not ‘near’ or ‘alongside’ it. The project thus emerges from and adapts to this special location.

Text provided by the architect.

La entrada Tourist Inn in Luna Castle se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

José María Sánchez García archivos - Global Spaces

CEU San Pablo Faculty of Law

Tourist Inn in Luna Castle