Municipal Police Headquarters

Location: Villajoyosa, Spain

Client: Villajoyosa City Council

Date: 2004 Completion

Total Area: 2,000m²

Budget: €2.5 million

Team credits:

FOA Partner in charge: Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Project Architect: Daniel Valle

Design Team: Jorge Arribas, Nicolo Cadeo, Danielle Domenicone, Sergio L-Pio, Natalia Rodriguez, Nuria Vallespin, Lluis Viu Rebes

Associate Architect: Antonio Marqueria, Torrevieja

Structural Engineer: NB35, Madrid

Services Engineer: Angel Garrido, Madrid

This project addressed a strategic location in Villajoyosa’s future development: a triangle delimited by the railroad station and the main highway access to the town centre. The footprint of the new Municipal Police Headquarters is an irregular pentagon determined from its alignments with the neighbouring streets and views.

The central plan aims for maximum compactness, while producing a core of stability in the local vortex of circulation. Within a landscape formed by the remnants of local farmland and the Sierra de Aitana as a background, we tried to keep the mass as low as possible, as though the building were just another wall in the surrounding rural landscape.

The plan is organised in three bays around an inner courtyard which lights a basement detention centre. The first bay is a public interface comprising an auditorium, library and witness room; the second hosts the administration and direction of the complex; the third hosts the officer’s quarters and various brigades. In the basement there is also a parking lot for police vehicles, a shooting gallery for training and a register office.

The building is built as a concrete shell, using the local sand surrounding the facilities, with a series of skylights to introduce natural daylight to the dependencies. The exterior walls are pierced by a series of holes, producing lattices for the wall openings and permitting views outside while still remaining protected.