Sondika Infant School in the Vizcaya School

The answer is an intermediate place, in space and time, between the protective zone of the family home and the unprotected place of adult society. Something similar to the marsupial pouch of a kangaroo that simultaneously offers the possibility of peering into the environment from a protective position or the ability to hide in a luminous interior insinuated through a thin skin. The building retains this marsupial character with the duality of being able to enjoy the landscape from the safety or being able to feel the climate without being seen, which is reflected in the location of the programme and its relationship with the four orientations towards the near and distant surroundings.

To the east, the classrooms form the area where the children look out onto reality through a continuous sheet of glass, perceiving the mountains of the Basque Country and the great variety of greenish tones that introduce their colour in the form of natural linoleum. The morning sun directly warms the first hours of play in five classrooms separated by movable glass diaphragms that allow the space to be flexibly transformed according to the needs of the moment. It is a world for users with a tactile radius of action of one metre and fifteen centimetres in height, stimulated by mirrored or rough materials, low doors and window partitions up to their childish height.

Between the classrooms and attached to the exterior glazing are the toilets, with the intention that all the functions share the privilege of contemplating the surroundings. The accesses to the toilets create a second continuous internal circulation that facilitates quick access and surveillance of the carers. From the outdoor play area, the children enter through doors of their height, through which the teachers cannot pass, into the toilets which house children's toilets and washbasins to remind them that the size of the space they are entering is no different from their own.

To the west, there is a protected area to feel the outside without being seen or disturbed from the nearby school in a large space that can be separated from the rest by a single diaphragm tinted with different types of glass and prepared to absorb psychomotor activities, nutrition and rest. A continuous wall of translucent structural glass acts as a separator with the exterior and a sliding door of child height allows children to exit through it. It is here that in the tranquillity of the siesta and the tiredness of the afternoon the vibrant changes of the setting sun can be perceived. To encompass all this tangle of internal relations and plurality of sensations, the roof is shaped as a multifaceted relief, a direct reflection of the interior diaphragms, and particularises each space with its own sky, making it recognisable to the children as a reminder of the exciting geography travelled each morning from their homes.

To the north, a stone wall opens up like a heavy Sesame to allow access from the car park to the forty children, thieves of their parents' dreams.