THE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSIDAD LABORAL, TO GUARANTEE SUPPLY TO THE WHOLE BODY OF STUDENTS AND TEACHING STAFF

The water supply serving this complex, in which more than 2,000 students would study and live, together with the water needed for the building's other functions, was to come from the Gijón mains, which at that time were not equipped to guarantee a constant volume to meet the building's requirements. The architect Luis Moya therefore provided for buried storage tanks and designed water tanks located in the tower building, between heights of 105.4 and 107.8 metres.

Having located, in the Archivo Histórico de Asturias and in the library of the Escuela Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid, the drawings and details of both the tanks in the courtyard of the former residence and those in the tower, we can state that the storage capacity of the buried tanks was 402,381 litres of water and that of the tower tanks 137,085 litres, giving a combined total of 539,476 litres when full.

From the buried tanks the water was to be sent to the tanks in the tower, from which it would be supplied by gravity to every part of the Laboral.

Drawings and photographs of the construction of the buried tanks.

THE WATER PUMPED FROM THE TANKS (CISTERNS) BURIED IN THE RESIDENCE COURTYARD REACHED THE TOWER, AND FROM THERE IT WAS SENT BY GRAVITY TO ALL THE PREMISES OF THE LABORAL.

These two documents from 1952 set out the calculation in m3 of the water tanks of the tower and were found in the Archivo Histórico de Asturias, in the file on the water installation, for supplying the tower cisterns from the buried tanks.

In this diagram of the tower section, we have marked in green the location of the water tanks, between heights of 105.4 and 107.8 metres, immediately below the viewing gallery on floor 17; the tanks are on all four sides of the tower, with level inspection hatches for these tanks on floor 17, on its east and south sides.

Photographs illustrating the progress of the construction of the water storage tanks

Section of the tower with the tanks in green, and exterior view with the viewing gallery, in whose floor the level inspection hatches are located

Rafael Morán Rumoroso

info@universidad-laboral-gijon.es