Almedina Youth House

The AYH is a place for the youth to hang out, meet, chill, play, work, communicate. To have meetings, exhibitions, workshops, hold speeches, watch a movie. In large groups, in smaller groups, by themselves.

These activities are not solid, they evolve, they change and new ones will arise. They all need a special accommodation, a special house. And all these houses need one roof, one sky. A large house containing smaller houses.

The AYH has a big overall structure that can resist the the changing of times and stay with us for decades, centuries even. It has the sort of structure and magnitude of a factory building, who are often used for these kind of activities throughout the world in their second life. And like a market hall it creates one roof.

The AYH also creates accommodations for the specific activities, they are easy to change. It is both open and private, even for the underground parking. The AYH floats in a glass ‘lake’, through which you can see the parking cars.

The AYH is placed in an urban setting off rectangular blocks, in a public square that is proportionated to the human size by trees. These trees are surrounded by a round bench to sit. The same bench surrounds some columns inside.

The measures of the structure of the AYH and the square are based on the the Golden Ratio. From the size of the tiles and the column to the size of the building.