Context. Spanish Worker Universities Program
The Spanish phenomenon of worker universities, which emerged during the Franco era, was curiously inspired by a Belgian progressive model, the Charleroi University of Worker, inaugurated in 1911. This model of technical education was soon taken up in France through the Mutualities of Bordeaux, from where its influence may have spread to our country and beyond. In the 1970s other Worker Universities were created in Tehran, Montevideo and Zaire, which proves the theoretical validity of the model.
However, the official creation of the first worker universities took place within the framework established by the Industrial Training Law of 1955, which updated the Statutes of the year 1928. Education at the worker universities was totally free, the Mutualities being responsible for the cost of student scholarships and their corresponding lodging and maintenance expenses. The first worker university that came into operation was that of Gijón (1946- 1957), destined to training in the field of mining, fishing and construction.
Cheste Workers University
In Cheste’s case, there was another important difference to the rest of the centers founded so far. What originally was conceived as a worker university for the professional training of young people in the region, became a “Worker Universities Guidance Centre”, constituting a veritable school city with a capacity for 5,000 students, more than double that of other major centers, such as Seville or Gijón. This great educational complex soon became the obligatory means of accessing the teaching system of the worker universities, channeling all new students, between eleven and fourteen years old, into other centers, after previously matching individual knowledge with work experience, school and professional guidance, with a view to student continuity in the scholarship system. The aim was to try to reduce the great differences in the educational level of the students.
Location
The ambitious project of Cheste was the result of an adaptation of the previous one in El Saler, but with the optimism derived from the more favorable conditions that were presented in Cheste. The site had steep slopes and promontories throughout its extension, so that now there were wide views over the surrounding landscape in all directions. Urgency dictated the immediate beginning of building work in a different territory, of rolling hills and located 22 km from Valencia within an inland municipality whose better physical conditions recommended the change. Improvements in organization had to be addressed quickly, although the original El Saler project was considered functionally efficient.
It is much to the credit of the architect that the modifications required had to be undertaken at the same time as the work was being executed. Many were undertaken through hand-made sketches by Moreno Barberá himself, because urgency prevented him from giving instructions to a draftsman to proceed with a redraw. As usual in his career, he personally took care of the design of the smallest details -constructive and finishes- of his buildings, which he almost always presented at a 1:1 scale. Interestingly, the total number of plans that the project covered was 788, providing an approximate idea of the scope of the Cheste’s experience. Of this number, 310 correspond to the architecture itself, 156 to structures and 313 are plans dedicated to installations. Once again, it should be remembered that the Worker University of Cheste would be completed within a period of just over a year. On February 16, 1968, the building work for Cheste was awarded to Agroman Empresa Constructora, S.A. with a deadline of December 15 of that same year.
Landscape
A model was constructed with contour lines marking the relief of the terrain and scale models were made of the buildings and sports facilities already projected. These were placed on the model in line with the criteria of minimum earth movement, good orientation and the functional organization of the whole, so preserving as much as possible the original landscape.
Program
The novelty of the program, as a result of the number of people who were going to use the facilities, obliged the architect to scale the buildings in line with the norms or architectural recommendations published to date, which gathered the experience of previous studies for similar cases. Reflecting its cosmopolitan attitude, it used Spanish norms.
The complex program of needs was approached by the architect by employing grouping functions according to levels, under the double, self-imposed premise of not altering the topography and avoiding the unpleasant feeling of crowding that the simultaneous use of large groupings can produce. Located on the upper level was the sports area with athletics tracks and two gyms, and below the residential area with four buildings that share a common platform and individual stairs for each floor of dormitories. In the intermediate position, there are two swimming pools and, descending from there, the work area with eight classroom buildings and four workshops that create no visual obstacles. The teaching staff building, with its central position and its greater surface occupation, emphasizes the hierarchical dominance of the teaching sector.
With the criterion of reducing the perception of crowding, the important nucleus of dining rooms is solved by dividing the area into pieces, two of circular geometry and two squares, around the service building, whose large kitchen could be divided into independent parts. The complex is also equipped with a sanitary zone and an oratory, where the concentric arrangement of cylinders in a columnar peristyle evokes the symbolism of a tempietto. Finally, the representative area, with rectorate, administration and cafeterias, is notable for the singular volume of the building destined to be the Paraninfo that, with exterier columns leads out to an outdoor auditorium, with a wonderfully sculptural abatson or amplifying system.
From a distance, the most representative image of the Workers University is marked by the auditorio-paraninfo. Its enormous volume, characterized by powerful structural ribs supporting the roof, makes the educational complex visible from any nearby point.