Montesión School, a student-centered educational landscape

The decision by the Jesuit order that operates the Montesión School to relocate it from Carrer de Montesión in the historic heart of Palma de Mallorca to the Son Moix district brought 500 high school and vocational training students to a new building designed around the latest teaching models and a vision of education as an open, dynamic experience deeply connected to its setting.

Designed by GRAS Reynés, the complex fits naturally into the existing fabric of the Son Moix pavilions, reinterpreting their layout without erasing their history.

A new school for Son Moix

The two original pavilions, which have been expanded over the years and adapted to meet increasingly stringent regulations, have now regained a sense of balance through the addition of a compact, functional new pavilion at the upper end of the site, where it establishes an independent entrance off Carrer d’Andalucía. This decision to create an independent entrance is not just a way to address mobility issues but a move that improves the complex’s connectivity and redefines its relationship with the surrounding context.

Outside, the project reveals one of its most distinctive features: an internal boulevard lined with planted areas that link the various buildings. Here, the existing greenery interacts with new trees and landscaped areas, providing shade and climatic comfort while turning students’ daily route into a slower, more shared experience.

The building occupies four levels. The first floor was conceived as a transitional space between the exterior and the upper teaching levels. This level also contains general services and a café, separated from the main building by a portico that strengthens the sense of continuity between indoors and outdoors. The two slightly offset volumes that form the building maximize the façade surface and converge at the center, anchored by a double-height staircase that functions not just as a circulation element but as a genuine social space, designed to encourage meeting and interaction.

Sustainable, contemporary spaces

Around this central space, which also contains general services and mechanical rooms, the circulation areas take on the character of a contemporary agora. They are not simple corridors but places for interaction that overlook the classrooms, which in turn are arranged along the façades to ensure natural light and ventilation. The teaching approach is reflected in the architecture, which is flexible, open, and collaborative. The classrooms, designed to be combined or divided as needed, support hands-on, experimental learning, while visual connections with the shared spaces reinforce the student’s central role.

Clad in a skin of steel fins, the façade is one of the project’s most expressive elements. More than a simple shell, this secondary envelope responds to orientation and sun exposure, modulating light and ventilation to ensure interior comfort. Variations in the spacing and color of the fins give the building a dynamic character, visually lightening its compact mass and making the relationship between form, orientation, and function clearly legible.

The envelope system extends to the new sports pavilion, creating a large covered structure that shelters the playing fields from the elements. Open yet sheltered, this multipurpose space hosts sports and, thanks to its continuity with the courtyards and bleachers, can also accommodate community events. Sport and social life thus become integral parts of the educational program.

Sustainability informs the entire project, with passive and active strategies integrated from the earliest design stages. A photovoltaic array on the roof contributes measurably to reducing emissions, avoiding 26.8 metric tons of CO₂ each year and enabling the building to operate as an energy-efficient facility. The material palette reflects a simple, measured approach, using exposed local materials chosen for their thermal and acoustic performance.

Within the overall masterplan, the new building reorganizes circulation and clarifies the relationships between the different school levels. While featuring separate entrances and dedicated areas for vocational training and the primary, middle, and high schools, the project connects the outdoor spaces through courtyards, accessible paths, and landscaped areas. The design team paid particular attention to sustainable mobility, with spaces designed for bicycles and scooters to support autonomy and safety.

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