CASE STUDY: Ventilated Tile Façade by Faveker Provides Beauty, Sustainability for Health Center

By Faveker

The small town of Illueca lies in a rift valley, flanked by the massifs of the Sierra de la Virgen and Sierra de la Camamila mountain ranges which run close to Moncayo Nature Reserve (Zaragoza, Spain). Permán & Franco Architects’ Studio have built a primary-care health center in Illueca whose design and ventilated façade by Faveker draw all eyes.

Illueca Health Center stands in a new development area of the town, providing the region with healthcare services (including 11 nearby towns and villages). It was built on an almost 1,400m² plot of land featuring an over two-meter drop between the entrance at street level and the land used as a base for the building.

The main floor of the Health Center is on the same level as the access area from the street, although the building is set back a few meters so that the pavement could be widened and a free-standing canopy erected, separate from the building, to shelter the entrance and add to the project’s characteristic hallmark.

At the rear of the building, a platform was built as a delivery area and car park. The building is a large, yet compact in volume. It has four identical floors, with no intermediate columns to allow for future modifications if needed.

The ventilated façade combines flat ceramic tiles with volumetric ones

This building was designed to stand out, albeit with a certain discretion, set in an area of the town yet to be developed. To achieve this goal, the architects opted for a highly original ventilated façade by Faveker, featuring a combination of flat and volumetric extruded ceramic tiles with an expressive metal-effect finish, evocative of the titanium used to make them.

The façade’s prefabricated window frames jut out slightly so that its windows contribute to the façade’s unique composition.

The metal-effect finish of the tiles changes in color depending on the light. This gives the building a chameleon-like air so that it stands out from the rest of the town’s architecture.

The tiles, from the GA 16 tile collection, were mounted using the FTS 502A mechanical fixing system, made up of continuous horizontal profiles fixed to vertical ones. Thanks to the horizontal joints, the tiles overlap. This leads to a highly versatile system, which protects the air chamber and optimizes the weight of the façade.

The building envelope, made of extruded porcelain tiles, stands out for its high-performance thermal properties: an important factor, given that this is an area with big temperature contrasts. The tongue-and-groove design of the tiles prevents water from entering the air chamber, avoiding problems of dampness, and ensuring a long-lasting ensemble.

Further, the tiled ventilated façade can reduce the building’s energy consumption by 40%. It is also a sustainable solution, given it is fully recyclable (the tiles contain up to 46% recycled content). The system can be dismantled, hence complying with circular economy requirements.

The building was designed to meet the necessary criteria as a healthcare center and to overcome urban planning constraints. The ground floor of the four-story building, at street level, contains the technical room, while the lower floor houses administrative offices, emergency services, and the phlebotomy unit. The two top floors contain the surgical areas. 

About Permán & Franco Architects’ Studio

Architects Luis Franco Lahoz and Mariano Pemán Gavín have collaborated professionally since 1980. Both combine their professional activities with teaching and collaborative initiatives with bodies like the Aragón Architects’ Association, Ebrópolis, and the Aragonese Urban Planning and Heritage Committees. They have been members of Academia del Partal since its foundation in 1999.