Centro Comunitario El Salitre

The Salitre Community Center is the proposal to serve a rural farming community which has seen the social and economic impact of migration to united states. It is conceived as the meeting point that requires the direct participation of the inhabitants for its conception as for its future operation.

Where with a circular communication activated by the training and workshops were held for community leaders, farmers, teachers, women and children, contributed ideas to define the architectural program of the community center. In this way the building ceases to be a material work to become a place of social nature and collective action.

Seeking to maximize the economic and ecological impact, the materials available in the area were used: steel, pigmented concrete finishes, artisan clay brick produced in El Salitre local labor. In the structure, a mixed system was used, the ground floor is resolved in reinforced concrete, the upper floor in metal structure and handmade slabs of Catalan vault, system originating in the region. Obtaining an architectural language that fuses technical and artisan processes, encouraging a sense of belonging in the rural context, creating a link between the public and the community center.

The community center contemplates two commercial premises with bars open to the public space, offering a means by which you can self-sustain financially. The upper floor is a more open and flexible space: equipped with folding walls made of recycled wood panels, being an multipurpose divisible area for community activities.

By involving the inhabitants in the process of the work it turns out to be an integrative building, where the architecture and the community, the industrial and the artisan are reconciled. The community center exudes warmth towards the street, a promise for the community of La Mora.