El vacío como elemento ordenador del espacio construido en las universidades laborales: la plaza o patio central y los otros patios

Abstract

Labour Universities were born with the aim of educating and preparing new generations of workers for the industrial development that began in Spain in the fifties. They would become a group of twenty-one Centers located all over the country, promoted by the Government and designed by architects chosen among the most prestigious national figures of the time, spreading their construction from 1945 through 1976. In all the projects, the empty space stands out for its structuring value either as a square or courtyard of defined edges, or as an esplanade or as an open or half-open courtyard, or as interstices that relate some buildings to each other.