a white car parked in front of a building
Four accommodation wings extend like the teeth of a comb from the building’s spine, bringing light and ventilation to the 440 rooms.

October 9, 2025

Text: Michael Snyder

Photography: Juanca Lagares

Inside A Pastel-Hued University Residence In Southern Spain

While the Burjassot housing was an entirely private initiative, another RYA-Lejarraga project—the recently built Loop Homes dormitory for the University of Huelva in southern Spain—resulted from winning a competition. Founded in 1993, the university occupies a former infantry barracks at the edge of the historic Andalusian port town, just 25 miles from the Portuguese border. Until last year, it was also the only institution of higher learning in the region without a residence hall—hence the call for proposals to develop and manage one.

In response to height restrictions imposed by the municipality and the university—and aiming to maximize room count—Martín Lejarraga configured the six-story, 113,000-square-foot building in the shape of a comb: a slab spine from which four residential blocks project like teeth, with interstitial gardens between them providing light, ventilation, and, he notes, “a strong proportion between solid and void.” Zoning requirements left open spaces at the site perimeter for a swimming pool and outdoor exercise facilities while, inside, common spaces are split horizontally across the ground floor, with the base of each residential block dedicated to a different use: dining, coworking, lounge, and gym.

The building’s long facades, punctured with orderly processions of windows, are rendered in the same blazing white plaster that coats houses and churches throughout Andalucía, while the blind end walls of the serrated blocks are clad in pale-blue sheet steel—a color that references the local soccer club and so, as Lejarraga observes, “is very much of the city.”

How Martín Lejarraga Revitalizes This University Dorm

a room with a pool, a pool table, and a poo
Ceiling ductwork is left exposed in the ground-floor commons at Loop Homes Huelva, a student residential hall servicing the Andalusian city’s young university in Spain.
a white car parked in front of a building
Four accommodation wings extend like the teeth of a comb from the building’s spine, bringing light and ventilation to the 440 rooms.
a room with a desk and a shelf
A single room’s built-in desk and storage is painted to match the lacquered-steel panels cladding the building’s blind end walls—also the color of Real Club Recreativo, Huelva’s soccer team.
the building is white and has a blue roof
With its plaster finish and grid of windows, the building evokes the whitewashed walls and simple geometric forms of Andalucía’s vernacular architecture.
a man is playing ping pong in a large office
Custom bleacher seating and Isaac Piñeiro’s Chat ottomans join beanbags and a ping-pong table in the game room.
PRODUCT SOURCES

FROM FRONT
RESOL: MODULAR SOFA (COMMONS). SANCAL: ROUND SOFAS (COMMONS), OTTOMANS (COMMONS, GAME ROOM). FARO BARCELONA: TRACK LIGHTING, SCONCES (COMMONS, GAME ROOM). INCLASS: DESK CHAIR (SINGLE ROOM). DECATHLON: PING-PONG TABLE (GAME ROOM). EUROPERFIL: STEEL PANELING (EXTERIOR). SAINT-GOBAIN WEBER: PLASTER.
THROUGHOUT
TITAN: PAINT.

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