Directed by Miguel Martínez and Pau Batalla, the firm Emac – an acronym for Mediterranean space for contemporary architecture – carried the day in the ideas competition for a preschool and primary school situated in La Pobla Llarga, a municipality in the Valencian comarca of Ribera Alta. Presenting two tablets linked by a longitudinally arranged courtyard, the complex is thought out to encourage contact and engagement with the exterior, and is designed with recourse to passive principles and sustainable materials.