The works to bring the Badajoz School of Arts and Crafts to San Agustín go out to tender

The Badajoz City Council published yesterday the tender to contract the rehabilitation works of the San Agustín convent and turn it into the new headquarters of the ‘Adelardo Covarsí’ School of Arts and Crafts. With a budget of 2.5 million euros, this is one of the most anticipated works of the investments programmed at Edusi.

Work will focus on the main cloister, with the idea of ​​restoring its original structure by removing all the elements that have been added due to the different uses it has had over time. A survivor of the original building of the convent of the Augustinian monks from the 15th and 16th centuries, the cloister has four wings, two of them with double bays, which will house the training classrooms, and a domed staircase, known as the Staircase. Real, who will also recover in this intervention. Closed since 1980, its last use was as an educational center, in fact most of the inhabitants of Badajoz refer to it as the old San Pedro de Alcántara school.

In order for its adaptation as a School of Arts and Crafts to be the least aggressive with its architecture, the project that will be carried out proposes dividing the classrooms with drywall, which can be moved to give it greater or lesser width without the need for works. The solution planned for the cloister also shares the same premise, hence the enclosures are all with light and folding glass. As for the distribution, the approach is that the classrooms that need heavy machinery go on the ground floor. The transfer of the metal sculpture and carving procedures classes, the general classrooms to teach theory and workshops, as well as the design and fashion classroom next to the jewelry classroom is planned there. The rest of the workshops will be located on the upper floor: drawing I and II, water and oil coloring, and the modeling room.

The connection between both floors will be through the Royal Staircase and, to guarantee accessibility to the school, an external module with a lift will be built.

Completed in October 2023

The main access to the new ‘Adelardo Covarsí’ artistic training center will be through Chapín street and there will be a second access through the smaller cloister, attached to the church and which was already rehabilitated in 2005. To do this, the now blinded wall will be opened in the smaller cloister, but it will not be incorporated into the new school as initially planned, although it may be used occasionally for exhibitions or events organized by the center.

The calendar handled by the City Council is that the works are awarded in mid-August and that the works begin a month later. The execution period is 13 months, so if everything goes as planned, the new headquarters of the School of Arts and Crafts would be ready by October 2023.