Camilo José Cela University (UCJC) is set to open the most sustainable urban campus in Spain, in the financial centre of Madrid, in the coming 2023-24 academic year.

The new campus is located on Calle Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, next to Paseo de la Castellana, between Cuzco and Plaza de Castilla. The building spans four floors and an area of 11,319 square meters, 3,226 square metres are green exterior work areas.

Over 2,500 students and teachers from various nationalities will learn at the Castellana Campus, UCJC’s fourth campus, joining those at Villafranca, Almagro and on board the schooner Cervantes Saavedra.

This new campus meets the highest standards of sustainability, energy efficiency and well-being, including the prestigious ‘Leed Platinum’ certification. Technology is another of the building’s hallmarks, not only because it is a state-of-the-art intelligent building but also because it incorporates the latest educational innovations developed by SEK Education Group to which Camilo José Cela University belongs.

Singular design

SEK Education Group has always placed great importance on the environment and the design of educational spaces. All UCJC campuses are designed to ensure an exceptional environment for learning, encourage personal equilibrium and the utmost respect for the environment.

The lobby of the Castellana Campus is crowned by the work of the artist Jinggoy Buensuceso inspired by water and koi fish, a clear allusion to balance and philosophy of the yin and yang.  This philosophy is what influenced the design of this unique building, which is conceived as an ocean that, from the depths, rises towards the surface until it reaches the upper garden where the coast is. The curved lines, the transparent walls and the open rooms to favour interaction dominate all the spaces.

The design of the new building is also aligned with the four strategic axes of the UCJC: entrepreneurship, digitization, social impact and well-being.

The fourth UCJC campus

In addition to the new Castellana Campus, Camilo José Cela University boasts the Villafranca Campus, located in Villanueva de la Cañada. This 140,000 metre square campus has classrooms and laboratory buildings -to which will be added next year the new building of the UCJC and HM Hospitales School of Health, and sports facilities spanning over 100,000m², which include an indoor sports centre, swimming pool, tennis and padel tennis courts, indoor horse riding and a football pitch, which is also the headquarters of the High Performance Sports School.

For its part, the UCJC Almagro Campus is located in a historic building from 1920, on Calle Almagro in Madrid.  It is a hub and catalyst of the intellectual and corporate activity of the University and the city, where again, the classrooms are open and disruptive spaces, which favour a practical and participatory learning process.

Finally, and docked at the port of Valencia, the Cervantes Saavedra Campus is a school ship and a singular sailboat with three masts and a 50 metre hull, which houses the Centre for Maritime Studies (CEM) of Camilo José Cela University, aimed at conducting marine research and professional training related to the sea.