The La Mar municipal nursery school, located at Andrea Doria street 38 – 40, in the Barceloneta neighborhood, has begun its expansion works. This week, the structure of the new part of the building, which utilizes an industrialized system, is being assembled. This method, already used in the city for public housing construction, minimizes impacts and disruptions to the center's activities, while also significantly shortening execution timelines.
EBM La Mar, built in 1990, currently has a constructed area of 710 m² and five classrooms. The expansion will add two new classrooms, totaling approximately 120 m² more, allowing the number of groups to increase from 5 to 7, thus raising the total capacity from 63 to 100 places. These two new groups – one for toddlers and another for older children – are expected to be incorporated by next September 14th.
The industrialized construction system involves the factory production of two-dimensional structural components, in this case, a lightweight wooden frame that includes elements of the building envelope and ventilated facade. Once produced, these elements are transported to the site for assembly, greatly reducing on-site execution work. This method improves quality, shortens deadlines, and minimizes disturbances to the school environment, as a significant portion of the work is done off-site.
The use of wood and the industrialized system contribute to reducing the carbon footprint and waste generation, while optimizing resource consumption during the construction process. The center has been able to continue its usual activities while the components were being manufactured.
In addition to the new classrooms, the expansion includes accessibility improvements, such as a new external evacuation staircase for vertical communication between the classroom corridor and the outdoor play area, and a new elevator to improve vertical communication between the ground and first floors. The project has a budget of 1.1 million euros.
