Barcelona: Urban Architecture and Community Since 2010 9783955536084, 9783955536077

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Barcelona Urban ­ Architecture and Community Since 2010 Heide Wessely, Sandra Hofmeister (Ed.)

Barcelona Urban ­Architecture and ­Community Since 2010

Content

Antoni Gaudí’s Legacy

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Community Spaces ○ ○

 1 Encants Flea Market b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos  2 La Comunal Cultural Quarter Lacol Essay  From S ­ uperblocks to Green Axes Lorenzo Kárász  3 Turó de la Peira Sports ­Centre Anna Noguera, Javier Fernandez  Sant Pau Cancer Support Centre Benedetta Tagliabue – 4 Kālida  EMBT Architects  5 Lleialtat Santsenca ­Community Centre Harquitectes Interview Harquitectes: History is Part of the Present  6 Cristalleries Planell Community Centre Harquitectes  7 Rambla in Sants Sergi Godia, Ana Molino  del Ferro Sports C ­ entre AIA Activitats Arquitectòniques, ­ 8 Camp  Barceló Balanzó Arquitectes, Gustau Gili Galfetti Essay  Post-­Olympic Trans­formation Rafael Goméz-Moriana  ­ ommunity Centre haz arquitectura 9 Porta Trinitat C  10 Mercabarna Flor Flower Market WMA – Willy Müller Architects

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Culture and Education ○ ○ ○

 11 Sala Beckett Theatre Flores & Prats Arquitectes  12 Oliva Artés Museum BAAS Arquitectura  13 Montbau-Albert Pérez Baró Library Oliveras Boix Arquitectes Essay ­Industrial Heritage as an O ­ pportunity Heide Wessely  School for A ­ udiovisual Media JAAS 14 EMAV   Montserrat Abelló Library Ricard Mercadé / Aurora Fernández 15  arquitectes  16 French Preschool b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos  17 School 906 Harquitectes Interview Anna Ramos: European Perspectives  18 Bressol Xiroi Daycare Centre Espinet / Ubach  University of Barcelona Research Centre ­ 19 Autonomous  Harquitectes, dataAE  20 La Mar Bella Primary School SUMO Arquitectes

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132 140 148 156 166 174

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182 188 196 202 208

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At Home in the City ○

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236 244 252 260 270 278 286

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294 302 310 316

 Housing for People in Need Straddle3, Eulia Arkitektura, 21 APROP  Yaiza Terré  22 Fabra i Coats Apartments Roldán + Berengué  ­ ooperative Lacol 23 La Borda Housing C Interview Lacol: Working Together to Shape the City  ­ ooperative Lacol, La Boqueria 24 La Balma Housing C  25 Caracol Residential Building Estudio Herreros, MIM-A  26 Apartment Building Lola Domènech, Lussi Studio  27 Alí  Bei Social Housing Arquitectura Produccions, Pau Vidal, ­ Vivas ­Arquitectos Essay  Housing and Politics Jelena Prokopljević  28 85 Subsidized Apartments Peris+Toral Arquitectes  29 57  Student Dwellings dataAE, Harquitectes  Júlia Senior Residence Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons, ­ 30 Torre  Ricard Galiana

Appendix

Architects Imprint, Picture Credits BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

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Projects ○

 1 Encants Flea Market b720 Fermín  ­Vázquez Arquitectos  2 La Comunal Cultural Quarter Lacol  3 Turó de la Peira Sports ­Centre Anna  Noguera, ­Javier Fernandez  4 Kālida Sant Pau Cancer Support  Centre Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT ­Architects  5 Lleialtat Santsenca ­Community Centre  Harquitectes  6 Cristalleries Planell ­Harquitectes ­  7 Rambla in Sants Sergi Godia,  Ana ­Molino  8 Camp del Ferro Sports Centre  AIA Activitats Arquitectòniques, ­Barceló Balanzó Arquitectes, Gustau Gili Galfetti  9 Porta Trinitat C ­ ommunity Centre  haz arquitectura  10 Mercabarna Flor F ­ lower Market  WMA – Willy Müller Architects  11 Sala Beckett Theatre Flores & Prats  ­Arquitectes  12 Oliva Artés Museum  BAAS ­Arquitectura  13 Montbau-Albert Pérez Baró Library  Oliveras Boix Arquitectes  14 E ­ udiovisual Media  MAV School for A JAAS  15 Montserrat Abelló Library  ­Ricard ­Mercadé / Aurora Fernández arquitectes

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 16 F  rench Preschool b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos  17 School 906 Harquitectes  18 Bressol Xiroi Daycare Centre Espinet /  Ubach  19 Autonomous University of Barcelona ­ Research Centre H ­ arquitectes, dataAE 20 La  Mar Bella Primary School SUMO Arquitectes  21 APROP Housing for People in Need  Straddle3, Eulia Arkitektura, Yaiza Terré  22 Fabra i Coats Apartments Roldán +  Berengué ­ ooperative Lacol 23 La  Borda Housing C  24 La  Balma Housing Cooperative Lacol, La Boqueria  25 C  aracol Residential Building Estudio Herreros, MIM-A 26 Apartment Building Lola Domènech,  Lussi Studio  27 Alí  Bei Social Housing Arquitectura Produccions, Pau Vidal, ­Vivas ­Arquitectos  28 85  Subsidized Apartments Peris+Toral Arquitectes 29 57  Student Dwellings dataAE, ­Harquitectes 30 Torre Júlia Senior Residence Pau Vidal,  Sergi Pons, ­Ricard Galiana

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Antoni Gaudí’s Legacy

008 BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

Barcelona is a city that is constantly changing in character, taking on a new face from time to time. Its transformations are clearly visible on the city map: the dense medieval old town and the first urban expansion after the fall of the city walls with the square city blocks by Ildefons Cerdà lend Barcelona its uniqueness; the 1992 Olympic Games also led to major upgrades to the urban fabric. Today, the proud Catalan capital is taking inventive and creative approaches to urban development and architecture to address issues defining our time: the climate crisis, the need for affordable housing, and building for the community. The most famous name in Barcelona architecture to this day is Antoni Gaudí. His exotic buildings are tourist magnets and continue to fascinate generations of architects and non-­ architects from around the world. Gaudí is known as a proponent of Modernisme, the Catalan Art Nouveau style that flourished until the 1920s to widespread acclaim. The concentration of modernista buildings is highest in Eixample, the district that the Catalan urban planner Ildefons Cerdà laid out in 1860 in a checkerboard pattern to expand the city. It is also home to Antoni Gaudí’s most famous buildings, such as the Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló, and Casa Milà. The latter was not without controversy at the time of its construction, and imaginative Barcelonians soon dubbed it “La Pedrera”, meaning stone quarry, because of its massive natural stone f­ acade. Shortly after its completion in 1912, the city declared Casa Milà a work of art, and the residence became the first 20th-­century building to be added to Unesco’s World Heritage List. Casa Milà was groundbreaking in many ways. The building has no load-bearing walls but a supporting structure made of pillars and arches, and even during the design phase Gaudí was already planning for the later reconfiguration of its floor plans. The multistorey building was designed to be used as a residence, office building, or retail shops – representing a flexible approach that is also very important for architecture today. For example, the Antoni Gaudí’s Legacy Heide Wessely, Sandra Hofmeister

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architecture collective Lacol, which won the 2022 Mies van der Rohe Award for Emerging Architects, is responding to user needs that change over the years with adaptable floor plans. Another characteristic of Gaudí’s residential buildings is their ingenious ventilation concepts. Supply and exhaust systems, cross-ventilation, cooling green courtyards, and thermal mass activation in the broader sense are measures that continue to play an important role in architecture today. Examples include the social housing complex in Cornellà by Peris + Toral (p. 302) and the community centre by Haz Arquitectes (p. 110). Meanwhile, Harquitectes are replacing energy-intensive air conditioning systems with shading and ventilation mechanisms that are as intelligent as they are simple. They take up another method Gaudí used in the past: material recycling. Casa Milà’s wrought-iron railings, for example, are made of scrap metal, and at Casa Batlló, a former apartment building, reused ceramic tiles combine on the facades to ­create imaginative mosaics. Techniques that placed Gaudí well ahead of his time are ­coming back into focus today in the search for sustainable and climate-friendly construction solutions – a highly topical issue, as Barcelona is becoming increasingly hot. The city’s special location is both a charm and a curse. Sandwiched between the mountains and the sea, it has no way to expand, so it has become denser than most metropolitan areas in Europe. It has 16,600 inhabitants per square kilometre – only Paris has more. This ­density offers advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the things of daily life are within walking distance. On the other hand, this density also means noise, dirt, and very little green. The socialist city administration has therefore set everything in ­motion to relieve the city of car traffic. In Eixample, new green avenues and pedestrian zones are being established. Reduced-­ traffic Superblocks – clusters of city blocks connected by “green axes” and car-free plazas at their intersections – are to be created within the block grid. 010 BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

The chimneys at Casa Milà (also called La Pedrera), designed by Antonio Gaudí, look like otherworldly figures.

Antoni Gaudí’s Legacy Heide Wessely, Sandra Hofmeister

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The urban expansion masterminded by Ildefons Cerdá in 1860 still shapes the structure of the city. Over time,

012 BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

­ arcelona grew significantly, incorporatB ing the surrounding villages.

The city is in dire need of more greenery. After a close succession of heat waves, policymakers launched a programme to address the climate crisis, which is described on the city website in the section “Barcelona for Climate.” It also identifies “climate shelters” where particularly vulnerable groups can seek refuge if they can no longer bear the heat in their homes. The shelters are not to exceed an indoor temperature of 27 °C; they offer free water and provide rest areas with seating. In addition to schools and covered spaces, recent additions include more shade roofs and small urban locations such as courtyards. The city’s aim is to build a dense network of climate shelters so people can access one in less than five minutes. The shelters are also open in winter, with an indoor temperature of at least 19 °C, because many of the low-cost buildings erected during the Franco era still have no heating. Not only the socialist government, which is still in office, but also several housing cooperatives are striving to give more support to people who are less well off. While their projects do little to ease the great housing shortage, they exemplify a positive shift in perspective. In terms of programming, nearly all of these new apartment buildings include a variety of uses under one roof, from communal facilities for residents to daycare centres, movie theatres, shops, and co-working spaces. Mixed-use is also noticeable in Cerdà’s Eixample, where the strict grid combines heterogeneous buildings from different eras, and eaves heights vary by several storeys. Their uses are just as varied: office ­buildings alternate with apartment buildings, and ground-floor retail spaces feature everything from bakeries and supermarkets to hardware stores and motorcycle repair shops, side by side. Barcelona has become a city of short distances, although it was never intentionally designed that way; Cerdà’s original idea was rather that of a garden city. Only one-third of the blocks were to be built on – leaving the rest free for green landscapes and community spaces. However, land speculation thwarted those plans Antoni Gaudí’s Legacy Heide Wessely, Sandra Hofmeister

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from the outset, and Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, which was intended to serve as the new city centre, instead became a transportation hub. As part of the ambitious urban revitalization plan 22@, the plaza will now be turned into a park, and the once-industrial area will be transformed into a future-forward district for innovation and advanced technology. Barcelona is already smart today. For example, parking ­spaces in underground garages can be booked using an app. Sensors in the ground provide information on available parking spaces, and bus stops inform travellers where the bus is currently running. Intelligent streetlights only light up when necessary, and sensors in trash bins report when they need to be emptied. Another central element in the city’s digital portfolio is Decidim, an online participatory democracy platform where citizens can vote on which projects should be implemented and how much money should be spent on them. Citizen participation is clearly important to the city administration. However, whether this also applies to one particularly controversial issue in the city remains uncertain. With the ­Sagrada Família, Gaudí left behind a momentous urban legacy, and construction of the long-unfinished church is finally due to be completed in 2026. Yet since the beginning of its construction some 140 years ago, the city has increasingly closed in on the church, which is now flanked on two sides by urban blocks. Unfortunately, the basilica’s main entrance is located on one of these sides, and Gaudí’s plan called for a sweeping staircase to lead to it. But residential buildings are in the way, so the city administration is loudly considering emptying two blocks completely. That would mean relocating some 3,000 residents – ­dynamite that does not bode well for an easy solution. What residents suffer is a tourists’ delight: 3.5 million visitors come to the Sagrada Família every year where they are enthralled by the imaginative interior, reminiscent of an enchanted forest. Perhaps that is why Gaudí’s works are still so fascinating today. 014 BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

Visiting them is a brief escape from the serious reality of the present – into a bright, colourful, fantastic world. This book is a portrait of the city that records the current status of architecture and urban planning and captures their development through 30 examples. It highlights clear trends, such as community-oriented building, which is more strongly represented in Barcelona than in many other European metro­ polises. The city’s 38 market halls, along with public squares and community centres, serve as lively everyday meeting places. The many museums and outstanding school buildings testify to the high value placed on education and culture for all. Last but not least, more affordable living spaces are being created through exemplary social housing and, increasingly, cooperative housing projects, making people feel at home in the city. Essays in this book on housing policy, urban development, and industrial heritage provide a look behind the scenes, while select protagonists share their insights and personal views about their city in interviews. Heide Wessely, Sandra Hofmeister

Antoni Gaudí’s Legacy Heide Wessely, Sandra Hofmeister

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Community Spaces

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 1 Encants Flea Market b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos  2 La Comunal Cultural Quarter Lacol Essay  From S ­ uperblocks to Green Axes Lorenzo Kárász  Turó de la Peira Sports ­Centre Anna Noguera, Javier Fernandez 3  4 Kālida Sant Pau Cancer Support Centre Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects  5 Lleialtat Santsenca ­Community Centre Harquitectes Interview Harquitectes: History is Part of the Present  6 Cristalleries Planell Community Centre Harquitectes  7 Rambla in Sants Sergi Godia, Ana Molino  del Ferro Sports C ­ entre AIA Activitats Arquitectòniques, ­ 8 Camp  Barceló Balanzó Arquitectes, Gustau Gili Galfetti Essay  Post-­Olympic Trans­formation Rafael Goméz-Moriana  ­ ommunity Centre haz arquitectura 9 Porta Trinitat C  10 Mercabarna Flor F ­ lower Market WMA – Willy Müller Architects

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018 COMMUNITY SPACES

The avenue Diagonal slices through the Eixample neighbourhood to the sea. Around 265,000 people live in the

square blocks with chamfered corners. Eixample is one of the most densely populated areas in Europe.

Eixample expansion district Ildefons Cerdá

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020 COMMUNITY SPACES

Mercat de Santa Caterina opened in 1884 and was the first covered ­market in the city. The erection of

a ­colourful, undulating roof in 2001 t­ ransformed the market into an urban landmark.

Santa Caterina Market Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects

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Goodbye cars, hello pedestrians. The city transformed this square in the densely populated neighbourhood of

Gràcia into a vibrant community space where young and old now meet, play, and relax.

Plaça de Gal la Placídia square Barcelona City Council

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Client: Barcelona d’Infraestructures ­Municipals, Ajuntament de Barcelona Structural design: Boma Completion: 2013 Area: 35,440 m2 Use: Flea market

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Carrer de los Castillejos 158, Eixample 🌐 encantsbarcelona.com @encantsbarcelona

b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos

History Meets the Future Encants Flea Market

A flea market? The conspicuously angular, glittering roof looks less like a typical flea market than a futuristic spaceship. Mercat dels Encants is a veritable landmark, visible from afar as you drive along the northsouth thoroughfare towards Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, or Glòries for short. The flea market was located there in the past as well. In 2013, it finally received a roof, but on a smaller area with only 8,000 m2. The architects wanted to avoid evoking a shopping mall with a multistorey structure, so they developed retail streets on slightly inclined levels that merge into one another to form an endless loop. This also connects the various street levels and the multilevel underground parking garage used by vendors and visitors alike. People haggle and bargain

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across 35,440 m2 at a variety of sales points: permanently installed booths, portable tables, and blankets – all in the shade of the striking giant roof. Hovering 25 metres above the ground, it allows a pleasant breeze to circulate and gives the impression of an outdoor market. The somewhat triangular roof surface is segmented into areas of different sizes and angles. Its shimmering gold underside reflects the hustle and bustle of the market with kaleidoscopic effects, making the view upwards at least as exciting as the view of the activities below. Sunlight fills the space, falling through skylights formed through the bends in the roof surfaces. Mercat dels Encants is said to have existed as early as the 14th century, when used goods were laid out on the ground for sale outside the city gates. Over the centuries, its location has changed several times, finding its most recent home under the futuristic roof on Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes. hw

1 Mercat dels Encants 2 Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes

Site plan Scale 1:8000

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026 COMMUNITY SPACES

3 Torre Glòries (former Torre Agbar) Architect: Jean ­Nouvel

The flea market will soon benefit from the circular green plaza currently ­being developed at Plaça de les Glòries Cat-

alanes. ­Idefons Cerdá already ­envisioned the public space as a new urban centre in 1860.

○1 Entcants Flea Market b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos

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○1 Encants Flea Market b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos

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○1 Encants Flea Market b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos

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Client: La Comunal Structural design: Lacol Completion: 2020 Area: 1445 m2 Use: Offices, bookstore, cultural centre with restaurant and concert stage, climate shelter.

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Riera d’Escuder 38, Sants 🌐 lacomunal.coop @lacomunalsants

Lacol

Cooperative, Communal, Social La Comunal Cultural Quarter

Wandering through the neighbourhood of Sants, a member of the Lacol architecture collective discovered an abandoned warehouse for ship sails. After being vacant for around 15 years, the listed building from 1926 seemed to be waiting for a new purpose, and Lacol had been looking for new office space for some time. They eventually negotiated a 25-year lease with the private owner – who also commissioned them to refurbish the whole warehouse. The building’s staggered front facade opening onto small triangular squares facing the street used to be the back of the building, surrounded by a high wall; the transition in the flooring is a reminder of the original configuration. Bicycle racks, a tree, and planters have transformed other areas of the complex into attractive public zones leading to the inner courtyard.

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Ten tenants work under one roof in the repurposed warehouse, which is organized as a cooperative. They include a bookstore, a cultural c ­ entre with a restaurant and music stage, a human rights organization, and the offices of Lacol. It was a challenge to convert the existing building, with its thin walls and lack of insulation, while meeting high standards for ­energy-efficiency and minimizing the noise from live music. On top of that were the strict requirements for the protection of historical monuments. But intensive negotiations with authorities and the neighbourhood ultimately led to the projects’s success. For example, one of the entrances to the cultural quarter is located in the courtyard, acting as a noise buffer during concerts. In addition, the local residents can use the courtyard as a “climate shelter”. The city has initiated a network of urban acupuncture measures to create spaces that provide those in need with relief from the summer heat through vegetation, water fountains, and

building infrastructure improvements to help citizens endure the summer heat better. To meet the historic preservation requirements at the La Comunal site, Lacol left the rear street facade virtually untouched, although the rooms on that side could have used more natural light. They had to do a lot of convincing to install the glass skylight, which provides ventilation and cools the building. There is no air conditioning; building services and circulation areas are kept to a minimum. Lacol was also thrifty in its sourcing of materials. For example, the narrow beams of an old floor slab were reused as formwork boards for the roof and a manufacturer of sandwich panels provided overstock insulation boards that now lie under the floor slab. Rainwater is collected in an underground cistern, and the facades are insulated with lime plaster mixed with cork in accordance with the preservation regulations. With these measures, Lacol has created a cooperative building that is cost-effective, energy-efficient, and sustainable, while creating added value for the neighbourhood. hw

034 COMMUNITY SPACES

Site plan Scale 1:2500

In the past, the current rear side of La Comunal was the front, where horsedrawn carts would deliver goods to the former warehouse.

2 La Comunal Cultural Quarter Lacol ○

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1 Office 4 Common room 2 Bookstore 5 Architecture 3 Restaurant with cooperative stage Lacol

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2 La Comunal Cultural Quarter Lacol ○

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Fewer cars in daily life: Superblocks and green axes aim to make the city healthier and more pedestrian-friendly.

From ­Superblocks to Green Axes Lorenzo Kárász

BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

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On Sundays, I like to walk with my children to the Mercat de Sant Antoni, which is right in our neighbourhood. There, amidst like-minded people, we swap Pokemon trading cards and browse the traditional book market around the renovated market hall. No car traffic makes it a safe zone for the children. We are lucky to live in one of Barcelona’s green, low-traffic superblocks, where we can escape the otherwise omnipresent car traffic of the city. Barcelona is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe today, with only 1.9 m2 of green space available to each resident in the compact Eixample neighbourhood. That is far below the standard targeted by the European Union, which is 20 m2. On the other hand, we have the most taxis and motorcycles per inhabitant, which undoubtedly contributes to the fact that Barcelona is also considered a particularly noisy city. In addition, there is a high level of air pollution and a general lack of public spaces, even though numerous open spaces have been created in the dense urban fabric since the 1980s through demolition and systematic de-densification. The ideal city of Eixample But things should actually have turned out quite differently. Around 1850, Barcelona was bursting at the seams. When the city walls finally fell, the Catalan engineer Ildefons Cerdà was commissioned to design the city’s expansion. For this purpose, he created a new academic discipline, researching the living conditions of the population and studying all the relevant urban development plans that had been realized to date, with the aim of fundamentally improving living conditions for the city’s inhabitants over the long term. His design for the ideal city was a strict grid of same-sized blocks measuring 133 x 133 metres each, with equal amounts of green space and built-up area – envisaged as the antithesis of the unsanitary and dense old city of Barcelona. However, from the beginning, his project was met with resistance, and the new Eixample (meaning expansion in Catalan) he planned was successively densified. As a result, Eixample is now five times as dense as originally intended. Nevertheless, we owe many things to Cerdà’s foresight, such as the 20-metre-wide streets lined with trees, the continuous perimeter block development, and its characteristic chamfered corners, where the street space opens up like a square. Such elements have led to a fascinating urbanity oscillating between rule and exception. This urban grid has proven remarkably adaptable over the past 160 years and continues to serve as the basis for urban development.

042 COMMUNITY SPACES

New urban mobility concept In the face of the climate crisis and the need to meet the challenges of vehicular traffic, in 2015, the urban ecologist Salvador Rueda introduced the “superblock” urban mobility concept as a reinterpretation of the Cerdà plan. The regular structure of the Eixample grid plays a vital role, enabling the possibility to systematically introduce the superblocks, which are made by grouping several urban blocks to form a traffic-reduced zone. Within these zones, pedestrians have priority and vehicle access is kept to a minimum, transferring much of the public space to the residents. The goal is to reduce air pollution and noise pollution, in addition to creating much-needed green space. The introduction of new orthogonal bus routes that align with the superblocks, as well as dedicated bus lanes, encourages the use of the public transport system. The expansion of bike rental offers and the bike path network contribute to environmentally sustainable transport solutions for city residents. Superblocks in Poblenou and Sant Antoni In 2016, a superblock pilot project was implemented in Poblenou as a simple, reversible, and low-cost intervention seeking to achieve maximum effect in a short time. Within a week, students were working with neighbourhood organizations to transform former traffic streets into welcoming public spaces playfully and simply, using bright colours, planters, and unpretentious street furniture. This approach is also referred to as “tactical urbanism”, in which temporary changes are introduced as needed and ultimately replaced by long-term urban interventions following a successful trial run. Due to the rapid implementation and lack of communication by the city, the project met with considerable resistance from residents, sparking a fundamental debate that continues to this day. It revolves primarily around the question of whether the city should be seen as a living space catering to the needs of its residents or as a service provider dominated by private transport. Consequently, the superblock created in the Sant Antoni neighbourhood in 2019 accompanied by an intensive public participation process. From the outset, measures were no longer only carried out as reversible interventions but also as permanent outdoor spatial design with additional green areas. The project was implemented as part of the redevelopment of the neighbourhood market of the same name, and was well-received and intensively used by the local population from the very beginning. One criticism of the superblock concept, as it has been implemented to date, is that it creates isolated areas with low permeability. In other From ­Superblocks to Green Axes Lorenzo Kárász

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044 COMMUNITY SPACES

Superblocks include both permanent and mobile urban furniture in Poblenou (above) and Sant Antoni (below), designed by Leku Studio.

words, that the superblock is an upscale oasis with low traffic – which causes vehicle traffic to increase in the streets around it. Some critics also see this as a break with the urban continuity of Eixample and a threat to the democratic, egalitarian values on which it was based. Green axes In response to the pilot projects, the concept is evolving to connect individual superblocks by “green axes”. Currently, as the result of an international competition from 2021, the street Consell de Cent and four perpendicular streets are being transformed into green axes with four new public squares at their intersections. The project, which involves several planning teams, uses sponge city concepts to create numerous green spaces with large surfaces for rainwater drainage and new rows of trees where cars once drove. Prospects for the future The creation of interconnecting superblocks consisting of 2 x 2 city blocks each will not only overcome the insular character of the pilot projects but can also be understood as part of a new urban strategy for Eixample as a whole: 21 green axes and 21 squares are planned there for the coming years. The resulting transformation of 33 km of streets will yield over 330,000 m2 of additional space for pedestrians, with some 3.9 ha of space for play, sports, and leisure and 6.6 hectares of added greenery – a profound transformation of the urban landscape, achieved without demolishing a single building. Today, delegations from all over the world travel to Barcelona to be inspired by the superblocks and their connecting green axes. Similar projects are popping up like mushrooms in many cities. Interestingly, at the local level, the project is being observed with a very critical eye, and its continuation is being questioned, while international views have been consistently positive. What is certain is that we need to address the challenges of climate change everywhere and develop strategies to create green spaces and reduce emissions. Barcelona is again playing a pioneering role in this respect and, thanks to the resilience and flexibility of its urban structure, is demonstrating how dense cities can be made more livable in the long term. My hope is that, in the future, my children will enjoy this city as much as I do – and ideally, even more.

From ­Superblocks to Green Axes Lorenzo Kárász

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Client: Barcelona d’Infraestructures Carrer de Sant Iscle 50–54, Nou Barris ­Municipals, Institut Barcelona Esports, Ajuntament de Barcelona Structural design: Manel Fernández, Ton Coll Landscape architecture: Anna Zahenero, Pepa Morán, Víctor Adorno Completion: 2018 Area: 4,430 m2 Park: 3,952 m2 Use: Sports centre

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Anna Noguera, Javier Fernandez

Dribbling and Swimming Turó de la Peira Sports ­Centre

Indoor sports and swimming stack up in this municipal sports centre: the lower part of the building houses a public swimming pool, while the floor above is a multipurpose hall for gymnastics, dance, and group sports. The centre is frequented by children and teens in local sports clubs or schools. Turó de la Peira, a neighbourhood on one of Barcelona’s seven hills, is home to the city’s lowest-income residents. Green spaces and public squares are scarce. Stacking the sports centre’s uses left enough room for a public park, which is laid out in terraces to overcome the site’s eight-metre change in elevation. Now it serves as a green meeting place for neighbours of all ages. There is also green on the sports centre facade facing the park. A steel mesh supports climbing plants while allowing views of the

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exterior access ramp, which leads from the street directly into the sports court on the upper floor. The swimming pool below is half-buried, with a dedicated entrance at the lower garden level. Barrier-free paths through the terraced park connect it with the street level, where the main entrance is located. Here, the building is characterized by its robust, exposed concrete base, with the facade of low-cost polycarbonate panels starting above that. The facility integrates nicely into the row of buildings, barely standing out among its neighbours. Side windows and skylights allow almost complete natural lighting and natural ventilation. Sensors monitor the indoor climate’s temperature, humidity, and CO2 content and open and close the openings as needed, allowing the sports centre to operate year-round without an additional air conditioning or ventilation system. Besides the sustainable climate concept, sustainable construction materials were used to build this Leed Platinum-certified facility. Supports, beams, ceilings, and walls are made of Basque timber and were assembled in just eight weeks. The new sports centre has been a hit in the community and is well visited every day of the week. Contributing to the project’s successes were the three public presentations of the design organized by the city council, followed by the engagement of the local community with the new project. When residents learned that a low-cost surface was planned for the court floor, they gathered at the district city hall to protest. Now the wooden building also has a high-quality wooden floor for youth to play handball or basketball on while others swim their laps on the level below. hw

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Site plan Scale 1:10 000

A terraced green landscape is publically accessible, and bridges the 8-metre height ­difference at the site. The vege-

3 Turó de la Peira Sports Centre Anna Noguera, Javier Fernandez ○

tation continues vertically, growing along the curtain wall of the sports ­centre.

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3 Turó de la Peira Sports Centre Anna Noguera, Javier Fernandez ○

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3 Turó de la Peira Sports Centre Anna Noguera, Javier Fernandez ○

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Client: Fundació Kālida Structural design: Bernúz-Fernández Arquitectes Interior design: Patricia Urquiola Completion: 2019 Area: 400 m2 Garden: 950 m2 Use: Cancer support centre

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Carrer de Sant Antoni Maria Claret 167, Horta-Guinardó 🌐 fundaciokalida.org #fundació Kālida @fundaciokalida

Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects

Built Blossoms Kālida Sant Pau Cancer Support Centre

The connection between architecture and nature at the Kālida cancer support centre is not to be overlooked. Nestled in a meadow of flowers, entwined with flowering climbers, and shaded by a mix of different trees, the modest building is situated behind the modern hospital building of Sant Pau. Its other neighbour is the historic Sant Pau hospital; the listed Art Nouveau complex designed by the architect Domènech i Montaner comprises eight pavilions in a park with medicinal herbs, in addition to the cathedral-like main building, which was converted into a museum. With their new building for the cancer care centre, EMBT Architects takes up the healing effect of plants on people, not only in the form of a garden but also as floral building elements – a clear reference

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to modernista architecture with its rich variety of materials, surfaces, and colours. Its red brick facades, for example, are interspersed with whiteglazed stones representing abstract blossoms. Hollow triangular bricks set into the curved walls form a lattice that provides shade and ventilation to the interior. With its colourful tiled roof, the building evokes associations with three unfolding petals. And the steel structure of the pergolas resembles the veins of a leaf. Kālida Sant Pau is part of the network of Maggie’s Centres, a British foundation offering free support to cancer patients, their family members, and caregivers. The architect Benedetta Tagliabue, who lost her partner Enric Miralles to this disease, designed the building like a garden pavilion. Boundaries between inside and outside blur; the built and the planted intertwine. The sunken ground floor opens onto terraces and pathways. This is a place of retreat and tranquillity, shielded by walls, pergolas, and lush greenery. The double-height dining area is at the heart of the ground floor space, with a kitchen, a small library, several sitting areas, and multifunctional rooms grouped around it. Surfaces flow into each other, even on the upper floor. The only activities that occur behind closed doors are medical and therapeutic consultations. The south facades facing the Art Nouveau buildings are extensively glazed, with fixed wooden slats filtering the light and providing discretion. Warm red flooring and wooden fixtures create a pleasant atmosphere, as do the capped ceilings so typical of Barcelona. Here, however, they are not built from small bricks but from larger prefabricated arch elements. In this pleasant and peaceful environment, people affected by cancer can receive practical, emotional, and social support. Many of the patients come directly from the hospital’s oncology department, just a stone’s throw from the Kālida centre, so that in times of need, professional support is quickly at hand. hw

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Brickwork, curved forms, glazed tiles, and floral patterns clearly reference

the Modernisme period, when the historic Sant Pau Hospital behind it was built.

Site plan Scale 1:5000

4 Kálida Sant Pau Cancer Support Centre EMBT Architects ○

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4 Kálida Sant Pau Cancer Support Centre EMBT Architects ○

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Client: Barcelona d’Infraestructures ­Municipals Structural design: DSM arquitectes Completion: 2017 Area: 2,500 m2 Use: Community centre

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Carrer d’Olzinelles 31, Sants-Monjuïc 🌐 lleialtat.cat #La Lleiltat Santsenca

Harquitectes

Brick, Tile, Plasterboard Lleialtat Santsenca ­Community Centre

Erected in 1928, the Lleialtat Santsenca community centre originally served as the headquarters of a workers’ cooperative; later it was used as a factory, then a discotheque. In 2006, the building was acquired by the municipality and stood empty for six years. In 2012, the city responded to a community initiative calling for the revitalization of the dilapidated building and launched a competition to repurpose it as a community centre. The winners, Harquitectes, faced three main tasks: to bring out the building’s historical value, preserve as much of the original structure as possible, and address the needs of the neighbourhood cooperative.

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Today 2,500 m2 of usable space are distributed over two sections: the two-storey main building with the entrance, a café, and a large multipurpose hall; and the two- to four-storey rear section, which offers a variety of different-sized rooms. The two structures are connected by an atrium that provides the adjacent rooms with natural light. Slender footbridges made of steel and wood provide access across the high space and serve as places of encounter. The distinctive wall surfaces were left untouched. The architects’ approach makes the building seem as if it were constantly transforming, as if traces of the past were not merely preserved but signs of gradual change. Brick walls from different phases in the building’s history alternate with layers of plaster, wall paintings, tiles, and remnants of green plasterboard, bearing witness to the various uses over the decades. As relics of the past, the original walls were cleaned, repaired where necessary, or supplemented with untreated brick, resulting in a tapestry of varied surfaces. The elements that were added as part of the renovation are pragmatic, cost-effective, and sustainable. For example, only untreated pine wood was used for the interiors, and the roofs are mostly made of polycarbonate panels. Solar collectors on the roof heat the building’s water, while the toilets are flushed with rainwater. The community centre has become a contact point for the neighbourhood, offering space for local initiatives, from parties and meetings to concerts and large events. For 5.45 euros an hour, music groups can practice in a 30 m2 studio, while digital novices are introduced to the online world in the computer lab. People of all ages come here for recreation, dialogue, and education – or simply to enjoy the atmosphere. The spaces are full of life, and each visit strengthens the sense of community. The people in the neighbourhood identify with the Lleialtat Santsenca – after all, they helped to create it.

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Site plan Scale 1:2500

5 Lleialtat Santsenca ­Community Centre Harquitectes ○

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Notable are the striking wall surfaces, which were left as found. This gives the impression that the process of

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transformation is ongoing throughout the building, as if the traces of time ­continue to evolve.

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Josep Ricart Ulldemolins of Harquitectes in conversation with Heide Wessely

History is Part of the Present

BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

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Catalan architects Harquitectes have made waves far beyond Barcelona with their sensual combinations of found and natural building materials. Since 2000, they have developed surprisingly experimental and efficient concepts for residential and community projects in their studio in Sabadell, about 20 km northeast of Barcelona. They often draw on construction methods typical of the region and combine them with technically innovative detailed solutions. Josep Ricart Ulldemolins (2nd from left), who founded the practice together with David Lorente Ibáñez (right), Xavier Ros Majó (left), and Roger Tudó Galí, explains their priorities in this process and how Barcelona’s historical industrial buildings can be reused.

Do you have a favourite building in Barcelona? The Dipòsit de les Aigües, which houses the central library of Pompeu Fabra University. Josep Fontseré designed the building in 1874 for the first World’s Fair. It was originally a water tower for the artificial waterfall at Parc de la Ciutadella. Fontseré was more of an engineer than an architect. He set the 3-metre-high basin on 14-metre-high brick arches supporting a barrel vault – a classic Roman construction typology. The reservoir was only used briefly before being replaced by water pumps. What is impressive about it, however, is that it never became obsolescent: first, it was a water reservoir, then a storage area, even the fire department used it for a while, and there was a time when you could row small boats there. The building has always been in operation; today, it holds an amazing library designed by Lluís Clotet and Ignacio Paricio.

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Are infrastructure projects better suited for new uses? They are more adaptable and multifunctional – similar to factories. Moreover, they have always been rebuilt, expanded, and repurposed. Old industrial buildings have larger spans, which offers excellent potential for new uses; the floor plans of residential buildings are more rigid. Unfortunately, historic preservation authorities do not distinguish between those two types of building stock, treating all buildings worthy of protection the same. If so, why were many old industrial monuments demolished? Many old factories were built on inexpensive land, in swampy areas, so the building fabric was in poor condition. I’m not nostalgic when it comes to preserving old buildings. With the Cristalleries Planell community centre, we were required to preserve the existing facade. We tried to trace its history, a patchwork of textures with many beautiful ele-

ments but also cracks, damage, and repairs. Wondering where they came from, we checked the archives. It turned out that there were 60 applications over 50 years to remodel or convert the building. The facade was never a representative element of the factory – it was never completed. We wanted to tell this story to passers-by and visitors to the community centre. The heritage conservation agency

“The beauty of Barcelona is that, in many places, history is not just preserved but is a part of contemporary life.”

for features and characteristics that reflect the building’s history. That has to do with cultural identity but also with remembering. Many people from the neighbourhood still know the building from before. It was originally a workers’ cooperative. Then it was a factory that produced turròn, a Spanish confection traditionally served at Christmas. The second floor was used as a disco and an event hall for community events. These various uses have left their mark on the building, and we would like to relate this story to other, younger visitors.

There is always a lot going on at Lleialtat Santsenca. What does a building need to become such a vibrant gathering place? The architecture cooperative Lacol played a central role in that regard. At that time – ten, twelve years ago, was against the idea because they they were still young activists. Even assumed the facade should be restored and finished according to the today they continue to work very closely with and for the local commuhistorical model. But how was that supposed to work? Three different nity. Lacol was involved in the comarchitects had worked on the original petition tender, and spoke with the facade. After lengthy discussions, we neighbourhood groups – the later reached a compromise: we only had users – about the activities they to finish plastering parts of the facade would offer and what they intended and were allowed to show the rest in to do with the new spaces. Accordingly, we designed floor plans that its imperfection. allow a lot of flexibility to accommoAt the Lleialtat Santsenca comdate those activities. munity centre you can see the building’s history. What’s the idea The community centre is located in a block development in Sants; it behind that? We always consider whether the new does not stand alone. Did that programme can be embedded in the urban context have an impact on existing structure first. Then we look the design?

Josep Ricart Ulldemolins of Harquitectes in conversation with Heide Wessely

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platform decidim.barcelona, gives that impression. But I don’t think that’s really the case. When I visited Berlin in the mid-1990s there was a similar feel. Hair salons were repurposed as libraries – anything was possible. Here in Barcelona, the most significant changes have been set in motion by major events: the Olympic Games, world’s fairs, and the Forum of Cultures. Now the city administration is also proposing major urban redevelopment to the population. A newly designed square catches everyone’s eye – it’s the easiest way to show that something is happening in the city. At the same time, redesigning a public square is much cheaper than In Barcelona, citizens seem to building facilities for education or have more say than in other cities. healthcare. Still, many of these new Why? areas are well done, no question. There’s a reason why Barcelona’s The current government, which urban design is world-renowned. also introduced the online voting We tried to bring the street into the building, and covered it with a transparent roof so sunlight can reach the darker areas deep inside. This covered void became the central atrium, which is airy, light, and bright and can be seen from the outside. To do this, we removed a minimum of walls and columns to achieve maximum freedom for the spatial programme, lighting, and ventilation. The competition tender actually allowed for the building to be gutted because only the facade is a listed monument. We were one of the few teams that wanted to preserve a significant amount of the stock.

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Models play a central role in Harquitectes’ approach. Pictured here, the four partners discuss their winning

­ ompetition project for a multifunctional c building with a library in Barcelona.

What does Barcelona need most urgently? There is a lack of affordable housing. That’s Barcelona’s biggest problem. Despite much talk about social and cooperative housing, those are only small measures. Building on a small plot of land cooperatively with educated, cultured people is great – but it doesn’t solve the broader problem. Only a fraction of the housing belongs to the city; the majority is in private hands, causing prices and rents to skyrocket. Besides, there are too many tourists, and they are too concentrated in the Gothic Quarter and El Raval. Together with Christ & Gantenbein, we won the competition there for the extension of Macba (Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona). The city and the neighbourhood are now negotiating how to use the public space in front of the museum.

years ago. It’s a kind of synchronization. Pompei, for example, is the exact opposite. The ancient buildings there look so modern as if you could still live in them today – but you can’t because their history is over. Here in Barcelona, people live in houses with columns from an ancient Roman temple. Barcelona connects the past with the present; it has always done so, and that is what makes the city so exciting and alive.

What do you particularly like about Barcelona? The beauty of Barcelona is that, in many places, history is not just preserved but is a part of contemporary life. For example, you can still trace the course of the Roman or medieval city walls. We are currently building a theatre and came across a piece of an ancient wall during construction. Whenever you start digging in the city, you discover remnants of history. That can pose challenges, but it is also something to treasure. We still live with the memory of events from 2000, 200, or 20 Josep Ricart Ulldemolins of Harquitectes in conversation with Heide Wessely

○ ○ Santsenca 5 Lleialtat  ↪

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­ ommunity Centre C S. 060 Cristalleries Planell  Community Centre S. 074 School 906  S. 188 Autonomous Uni­  ver­sity of Barcelona Research Centre S. 208 57  Student Dwellings S. 310 073

Client: Infraestructures Metropolitanes, Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona Structural design: DSM arquitectes Completion: 2016 Area: 1,694 m2 Use: Community centre

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Carrer del Dr. Ibáñez 38, Les Corts

Harquitectes

Heritage Meets High-Tech Cristalleries Planell Community Centre

Even from a distance, the four silver towers jutting from the roof indicate a technically sophisticated, energy-efficient building. They are both the landmark of the Christalleries Planell community centre and a reference to the building’s previous industrial use as a glassworks. The prominent chimneys are just the tip of a clever passive heating and cooling system that eliminates the need for conventional air conditioning. This is achieved by the new red brick structure that Harquitectes inserted inside the historical structure, which was built according to designs by Josep Graner i Prat in 1913. On the southeast side of the building, the new volume is set back two metres from the old facade; on the opposite side, it forms an atrium with a triangular

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base. Fresh air enters the building through an underground duct system and then is drawn upward. From there, it flows into the rooms through ­tilted windows and finally escapes to the outdoors as exhaust air through the solar chimneys. Both atriums are closed with glass roofs. The community centre was originally intended as a three-level building that would largely retain the cubature of the old factory. Only later was a fourth floor added, distinguished by its lighter-coloured brickwork. In order to draw more natural light into the white-painted interiors, the architects had the old facades partially built up with glass brick – a clear visual break from the brickwork but also a reference to the former glass factory. Adult language courses in English, Spanish, and Catalan as well as computer skills classes are taught in the bright, airy classrooms.

Harquitectes have managed to preserve an important relic of the neighbourhood’s industrial history, uniting past and present in a compelling landmark. The historical facade of natural stone and brick is preserved as a ruin and supplemented with differently designed brick facades. The Leed Gold certified community centre celebrates the heritage of the industrial age while standing confidently in the here and now. hw

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In summer, hot air exits the building through the distinctive solar chimneys. They also serve as the symbol of the community centre.

Site plan Scale 1:5000

6 Cristalleries Planell Community Centre Harquitectes ○

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6 Cristalleries Planell Community Centre Harquitectes ○

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1 Main entrance 2 Emergency exit 3 Atrium

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The traces of history are most evident on the entrance facade. Bricks from ­different eras come together like a patchwork.

6 Cristalleries Planell Community Centre Harquitectes ○

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Client: Barcelona d’Infraestructures ­Municipal, Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias, Infraestructures de la Generalitat de Catalunya Structural design: Esteyco Landscape design: Joan Pinyol Completion: 2016 Area: 48,400 m2 Use: Infrastructure, park

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Plaça de Sants, Carrer de la Riera ­Blanca, Sants-Monjuïc

Sergi Godia, Ana Molino

Floating Gardens Rambla in Sants

The elevated gardens of Sants – Jardins de la Rambla de Sants – are a prime example of how ordinary citizens can help improve their city. For decades, railroad tracks divided the densely populated neighbourhood of Sants into two parts, with trains on eight parallel tracks rattling by the residential buildings. The resulting noise and air pollution caused both structural and social damage to the area. In 2000, a neighbourhood initiative rallied to combat the situation. After two years of protests and talks with the railway operators, the city government finally agreed to undertake a significant infrastructure project to address the problems. At first, initiative’s goal was to eliminate the rail line altogether, a solution that proved technically and economically unfeasible. As

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a compromise, only one track was moved underground, while two were enclosed. An 800-m landscaped walkway was created on the roof of the enclosure, with the option of extending it to the city outskirts for a 5 km green corridor. The pedestrian boulevard is supported by large prefabricated concrete trusses lined with glass, which enables people to see the trains while significantly dampening the noise. Colourful planted embankments interrupt the concrete and glass structure at three spots along the promenade. They merge with the rooftop garden and provide ramps that overcome the height difference between the street and the green walkway. Here on the Rambla de Sants, people can be found enjoying a book on the park benches, exercising on the outdoor gym equipment, watching their children play, or simply strolling along the promenade. Zones with soft rubberized flooring crisscross the boulevard, alternating with pale green surfaces. Shade canopies provide relief from the hot sun, while sculptural, pre-patinated street lanterns contribute to a sense of safety in the evening. Running down the middle of the elevated park is a line of trees, shrubs, and low-growing plants, which merge into grassy lawns. Intermittent ventilation towers rise from the train tunnel below, doubling as a display of archival photographs from the days when the trains ran above ground. The gardens are raised 4 to 12 metres above street level, creating a viewing platform with a panorama. A small seating tribune overlooking the trains and railroad tracks is at one end of the Rambla de Sants. A neighbourhood committee accompanied the implementation of this urban intervention, which took 11 years. Its lengthy duration was not only because of the complexity of the construction work required while rail operations continued unhindered, but also because of the many actors involved; three administrative bodies were responsible for implementing the infrastructure project: the Spanish state, the Catalonia region, and the city of Barcelona. Although the local community benefits greatly from the new green spaces, problems remain, with vandalism stemming from the previous situation of urban decay and the social marginalization that accompanied it. But the hope remains that this urban renewal project will hasten the rehabilitation of the neighbourhood. hw

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7 Rambla in Sants Sergi Godia, Ana Molino ○

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Where express and regional trains once rattled through the neighbourhood of Sants, there is now a leafy, 800-metre-­ long promenade. The Rambla de Sants

is located on the roof of the enclosure, which shields the ­community from railway traffic sights, sounds, and smells.

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The photovoltaic cells on the roof not only produce electricity but also provide ample shade.

7 Rambla in Sants Sergi Godia, Ana Molino ○

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7 Rambla in Sants Sergi Godia, Ana Molino ○

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Client: Ajuntament de Barcelona Structural design: BAC Engineering ­Consultancy Group Completion: 2020 Area: 7,237 m2 Use: Sports centre

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Plaça d’Albert Badia i Mur, Sant Andreu 🌐 ajuntament.barcelona.cat/ campdelferro

AIA Activitats Arquitectòniques, Barceló Balanzó Arquitectes, Gustau Gili Galfetti

Breezy Brick Skin Camp del Ferro Sports Centre

Situated in the northern district of Sant Andreu, near the new ­Sagrera railway station, the Camp del Ferro sports centre is surrounded by recently completed apartment buildings where old factories and warehouses once stood. Its next-door neighbours include the Llotja School of Art and Design, recently installed in one of the few factory buildings that have been maintained, as well as an older sports centre dating from the Olympic period, a part of which this new facility has replaced. Sport has been an important part of life in Barcelona ever since the city hosted the 1992 Olympic games. Not unlike its network of neighbourhood libraries, municipal sports centres can be found throughout the city, each specializing in different types of physical activity.

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In a densely inhabited city such as Barcelona, where public space is ­precious, it is not untypical for large public buildings to be partially submerged to lessen their visual impact on the urban landscape. Camp del Ferro consists essentially of three big halls for indoor sports, such as basketball, roller hockey, and gymnastics, along with the requisite offices, changing rooms, and bleachers. Two of the sports halls are located in the semi-underground plinth, which supports a third, smaller gym above it, forming an L-shaped section with the entrance at mid-height. This design strategy creates a generous public plaza on the roof of the plinth. The entrance level is glazed along the entire edge of the plaza, putting interior activity on public display while articulating the joint between the plinth and the building. The impact of what remains of the building mass is further lessened by the intricately designed architecture of the building envelope. Crowning the building is a sawtooth roof consisting of four inverted vaults, expressed outwardly by wave-shaped cornices. A dynamic facade emerges from the different types and colours of bricks arranged in various patterns and degrees of opacity according to their orientation to the sun. Brick louvres on the south-facing facade protect the interior from direct sunlight and glare, while brick latticework shades some of the windows and the double-height entranceways below cantilevered building corners. With its playful brick facades and sawtooth roof, Camp del Ferro undoubtedly pays homage to Barcelona’s 19th-century industrial past as well as the expressive modernista architecture to which it gave rise – Lluís Domènech i Montaner would be very proud indeed. rgm

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Site plan Scale 1:8000

8 Camp del Ferro Sports Centre AIA Activitats Arquitectòniques, Barceló Balanzó Arquitectes, Gustau Gili Galfetti ○

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2 Locker/dressing 4 Forecourt/out- 7 PAV3 Sports rooms door playground Court (triple 3 Skating sports 5 Entrance court) 8 Utility room for 123 specta- 6 Food/social 9 Activity room tors area 10 Void

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The facade’s differentiated design makes the large building volume appear less overwhelming. This effect is sup-

ported by the curved roof, where skylights also have the invisible function of providing natural ventilation.

8 Camp del Ferro Sports Centre AIA Activitats Arquitectòniques, Barceló Balanzó Arquitectes, Gustau Gili Galfetti ○

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Post-­ Olympic Trans­ formation Rafael Gómez-Moriana

BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

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Barcelona has a remarkable history of staging global events. The 1888 and 1929 World’s Fairs, the 1992 Olympic Games, and the 2004 Forum of Cultures have not only brought the city international renown but have also served as pretexts to transform the  city bit by bit. The Olympics was the most ambitious, involving the refurbishment of no less than four urban areas – a success story that led to the coining of a ­“Barcelona model” of urban transformation, and the awarding of a RIBA Gold Medal in 1999 to a city rather than an architect. But is this model still relevant today?

In the late 1970s, when Barcelona first considered making a bid for the 1992 Summer Olympics, Spain was still recovering from the Franco dictatorship, a period of uncontrolled urban growth and little attention paid to public services and infrastructure. Hosting the most global event of all, it was hoped, would provide the necessary impulse to modernize and transform the city. Architect Oriol Bohigas, the urbanism coordinator under Narcís Serra, Barcelona’s first socialist mayor since the restoration of democracy, launched a programme of public space improvements that set out to “clean up the centre and monumentalize the periphery”, dignifying bland 1960s and ‘70s housing developments with urban design and public art while restoring a historical core that had fallen prey to social problems associated with drugs and unemployment. Bohigas’s highly localized approach, which he termed “urban projects”, involved surgical interventions that were respectful of the diverse typo-morphological realities of the city. These reconstruction projects, carried out on a shoestring by a cash-strapped city council, incorporated the rejuvenation of run-down public squares with the construction of new neighbourhood facilities such as schools and libraries. In many cases, these public spaces were often (re)built in the form of decks covering new or existing transportation infrastructure, resulting in plazas duras, or hard squares, that generated much criticism among citizens. Another critic of Barcelona’s pre-Olympic transformation was none other than Rem Koolhaas, who wrote in his 1995 essay “The Generic City”: “Sometimes an old, singular city, like Barcelona, by oversimplifying its identity, turns Generic. It becomes transparent, like a logo.” The criticism continues in his “Junkspace” essay of 2001: “Through Junkspace old aura is transfused with new lustre to spawn sudden commercial viability: Barcelona amalgamated with the Olympics.” After being awarded the Olympic Games in 1986, Barcelona’s urban plans grew in scale and urgency. In 1987, architect Joan Busquets, in charge of urban planning for the Barcelona city council, developed a plan identifying 12 strategic “areas of new centrality” to be reconstructed throughout the periphery. Four of these would be sites for Olympic 104 COMMUNITY SPACES

venues connected by a new sunken beltway, the Ronda. The Olympic Port and Athletes’ Village, the largest of the four venues, was planned for a waterfront industrial site whose factories, rail tracks, and shantytowns had made the city’s beaches inaccessible. The much-publicized intention to “open the city to the sea” can be credited with building citizen consensus overwhelmingly in favour of hosting the Olympics, with volunteers signing up in unprecedented numbers.

The artificial beach is over 4 km long area was cluttered with factories, and is one of the city’s major attractions. ­railroad tracks, and shantytowns. Before its Olympic transformation, the

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Forum 2004: invention of a global event The resounding success of Barcelona ‘92 changed everything. After a brief economic downturn, new projects were drawn up involving greater proportions of private investment. These included the Zona Franca logistics area between the seaport and the airport, the 22@ plan to convert an obsolete industrial area into a knowledge district, and yet another global event – one invented by the Barcelona city council of socialist mayor Joan Clos – to be inaugurated in 2004 on the last remaining waterfront industrial site. The 2004 Universal Forum of

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Crowds during the 2004 Universal ­Forum of Cultures fill a plaza that sits mostly empty today. The striking

building by Herzog & de Meuron was built as the centerpiece of this international event.

Cultures, as this new event was named, aimed to replicate the success of the Olympic transformation under the slogan “peace, sustainability, and diversity”. The Forum was built at the end of one of Barcelona’s main avenues, the Diagonal, which was extended to the sea as part of a much broader reconstruction effort under the coordination of chief municipal architect Josep Acebillo. A large exhibition and auditorium facility by Herzog & de Meuron, together with a vast waterfront plaza, was built atop an existing, functioning water purification plant. Adjacent projects included a convention centre by Josep Lluís Mateo, a new yachting port, a hotel by Oscar Tusquets, and a park by Foreign Office Architects. Nearby, the Hines corporation of Texas was building Diagonal Mar, a private development containing a US-style indoor shopping mall by Robert A. M. Stern as well as luxurious residential view towers set in a public park designed by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects. Despite the noble rhetoric, or perhaps because of it, Forum 2004 was perceived by some as a veiled operation to attract global tourism and real estate investment. With its freestanding objects in a sprawling landscape, the global urbanism of the Forum area is a direct inversion of the historical Mediterranean figure-ground relationship. Critic Josep María Montaner described it as “a neoliberal urbanism comprising large independent objects with no relation to the urban fabric.” Major projects from the Forum era include EMBT Architects’ sculptural corporate headquarters for a gas utility, featuring a wing cantilevering 30 metres; an iconic water utility office tower by Jean Nouvel whose rounded forms pay homage to Antoni Gaudí; an immense trade fair complex by Toyo Ito characterized by a pair of idiosyncratic twin towers; and an all-glass waterfront luxury hotel by Ricardo Bofill intended to resemble a sail (but often likened to Burj Al Arab off the coast of Dubai). 2008 economic crisis: the party ends The tendency to build ever-larger public-private projects in the form of sculptural freestanding objects culminated in the mid-2000s with a proposal for an 80,000 m2 skyscraper complex by Frank Gehry for which no competition was held. Intended for a site adjacent to a planned high-speed train station at La Sagrera, Gehry’s project became an early victim of the economic crisis that hit Spain in 2008. The crisis changed everything again, with expensive starchitecture falling out of favour. Meanwhile, an emerging younger generation of architects, disaffected by post-Olympic Barcelona’s growing privatization and gentritouristification, were becoming activists for affordable housing and the right to the city. Post-­Olympic Trans­formation Rafael Gómez-Moriana

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In 2011, at the height of the economic crisis, Barcelona’s first conservative mayor was elected, Xavier Trias. His new deputy mayor in charge of urbanism, Antoni Vives, embarked on a Smart City agenda while taking over one of the biggest post-Olympic projects underway at the time: the redevelopment of the Plaça de les Glòries traffic interchange into a large urban park with an underground traffic tunnel beneath it. Eventually sentenced to prison for corruption on an unrelated matter, Antoni Vives is now Head of Urban Development on Saudi Arabia’s controversial The Line project.

The 1992 Olympics represented the high point of ­Barcelona’s urban reconstruction. Subsequent global events tried to repeat this success. Anti-globalism: the housing turn Following the mayoral election only four years later of a leftist citizens’ platform led by housing activist Ada Colau, urban policies took a turn once again, this time toward alternative affordable housing models, the adaptive reuse of buildings, the attrition of motor traffic from streets, and the greening of the city. Projects initiated at this time include the housing cooperative La Borda (p. 244), an urban infill by the Lacol architecture cooperative with a 75-year public land leasehold agreement that has become a poster child for bottom-up approaches to solving the city’s housing shortage; 85 VPO by Peris + Toral (p. 302), a social housing block in the periphery whose flexible dwellings are based on a rigid modular grid; and the APROP prototype by Straddle3, Eulia Arkitektura, and Yaiza Terré (p. 230), a low-cost prefab housing infill built of used shipping containers for evicted and homeless persons in Barcelona’s historical centre. In 2016, urban ecologist Salvador Rueda’s plan to convert Ildefons Cerdà’s 1859 Eixample urban grid into superblocks began to be implemented through a tactical pilot project in Poblenou (p. 40). Superblocks aim to reduce air pollution by converting up to 120 of the grid’s trademark chamfered intersections into public squares and gardens, representing one of the most ambitious urban transformations ever undertaken by the city. The 1992 Olympics represented the high point of Barcelona’s urban reconstruction. Subsequent global events, such as the 2004 Forum of Cultures, tried to repeat the success of the Olympic transformation, but many of Barcelona’s citizens were no longer so sure that what the city needed was more tourism and global real estate investment driving 108 COMMUNITY SPACES

up the cost of housing. A recent effort on the part of Catalan politicians to place a bid for a Pyrenees Winter Olympics – a perfect pretext for expanding Barcelona’s airport – was met with little public enthusiasm and plenty of political squabbling, falling apart before it could be submitted. Global events are no longer what they used to be. It would seem that the Olympic “Barcelona model” of finely scaled “urban projects” intended to transform neighbourhoods underwent its own post-Olympic transformation, increasingly resembling the Asian model of stand-apart megaprojects. After the economic crisis that began in 2008, attention finally began to turn toward much-needed housing – a programme long sidelined by the city’s focus on global events and tourism – as well as urban ecology in the face of a climate crisis exacerbated precisely by globalization. The most recent urban-architectural initiatives clearly demonstrate a return to the more empirical neighbourhood-based urbanism of the pre-Olympic period. The Barcelona model has seemingly gone full circle.

The Olympic Village with the Olympic Port Olympics. The two towers were designed by is one of four “areas of new centrality” Iñigo Ortiz and Enrique de León, and SOM that were redeveloped for the 1992 with Bruce Graham.

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Client: Barcelona d’Infraestructures ­Municipals Structural engineering: BAC Engineering Completion: 2021 Area: 2,300 m2 Use: Community centre, advisory ­services, music practice room

9

Via Favència 399, Sant Andreu

haz arquitectura

The Wooden Thing Porta Trinitat Community Centre

The Porta Trinitat community centre already had nicknames before it even opened: “The sauna” or “the wooden thing” is what locals call the building, which is entirely clad in larch wood. Timber facades are rare in Spain; fear of fire and the scorching heat in summer, which causes rapid wear and tear, do not give wood a high ranking on the material scale. But this is gradually changing as the discussion on resource-saving, sustainable construction transforms the urban landscape. The city council therefore went along with the gamble of building the community centre on the northern edge of Barcelona almost entirely out of

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wood. Only a few of the load-bearing components are made of steel due to the wide spans of some rooms, like the foyer. The ample space can be used to host celebrations and exhibitions, with wining and dining at the café bar. Inexpensive hollow concrete bricks tilted at 90 degrees filter the light on the ground floor. In summer, they provide sun protection, while in winter, when the sun is low, they conjure up countless points of light in the interiors. That’s not the only spectacle in the building: local creatives can stage plays and dance performances in the adjacent auditorium. The multipurpose space includes a stage that can be dismantled and curtains that can be drawn to reduce and expand the room or serve as part of the set or as a theatre curtain. Roller blinds in front of the windows can darken the hall if necessary. The hall extends outdoors, where the adjacent courtyard is framed by a massive retaining wall that doubles as a projection screen for movie nights. The upper floors contain social facilities, including a help centre for women, which provides strictly regulated access and opaque glass panes to protect them from potential harm. The rest of the building, on the other hand, is open and transparent. It includes advisory services for financial issues, co-working spaces and meeting rooms anyone can rent at low cost or even use for free. The same applies to two music practice rooms and the multipurpose rooms on the third floor, which are grouped around two patios that not only bring light into the building but also fresh air. Underground pipes draw fresh air into the covered atriums, which serve as large air ducts. The cool air, around 17 to 18 °C, enters the rooms through gill-like openings in the ceilings. On particularly scorching days – when the sun heats up the building despite the wooden shades in front of the windows – does the air conditioning have to be switched on; this is mandatory in Spain for public buildings. Low energy consumption is also ensured by the photovoltaic panels on the roof, which supply 77,700 kWh of electricity annually. Any excess production is fed into the power grid and remunerated. Employees are encouraged to be energy conscious at work; charging personal devices on the premises is prohibited. hw

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Client: Mercabarna Structural design: Area 5 Completion: 2009 Area: 15,000 m2 Use: Flower market

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Carretera antigua de Valencia 1, Sant Boi de Llobregat 🌐 mercabarnaflor.com

WMA – Willy Müller Architects

Rooftop Rainbow Mercabarna Flor Flower Market

Located along a highway serving Barcelona’s airport, Mercabarna Flor is a wholesale plant and flower market that is distinguished by a folded, highly sculptural roof featuring a colourfully ornamented fascia. The market, a sprawling industrial warehouse that replaces a previous one destroyed by fire in 2001, contains three different climactic zones under one roof: a cool zone for the display and sale of cut flowers, a greenhouse for potted plants at the opposite end, and an area for dried flowers and florists’ accessories situated in-between. The warehouse also contains 240 linear metres of truck loading bays situated adjacent to the cut flower zone to facilitate the rapid turnover required of this

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highly perishable product. An upper storey situated over the cool zone contains offices as well as a cafeteria overlooking the market interior along with a balcony facing out of the back of the building toward an agricultural landscape. The roof, which is folded and angled down in places to meet the flat ground plane of an asphalt parking lot, was conceived as a robust shell protecting the fragile and dynamic content beneath, not unlike the body of a turtle. The roof is folded up to create openings in the building at vehicular and pedestrian points of entry and exit. The more visible, angled parts of the roof, which is effectively an angled wall, are clad in standing seam sheet metal (zinc) of varying shades of grey and in lively patterns that recall agricultural land use patterns of the surrounding Llobregat River delta. The fascia of the roof, by contrast, is finished with vertical metal fins painted in 22 different colours, creating an insignia or logo for the building that subtly references the goods available inside. The fins have a prow-shaped profile that maximizes their visibility and chromatic intensity when driving past the market on the highway, providing a moment of delight in an otherwise desolate commercial landscape. The less visible flat part of the roof, about 12,000 m2, is designed to capture rainwater used for plant irrigation and is supported by a structural system comprising large-span steel trusses with steel and precast concrete columns. Because the potted plant zone requires temperatures between 15 and 26 °C, whereas the cut flower stalls must be refrigerated to temperatures of 2 to 15 °C, a radiant heating and evaporative cooling system is built into the concrete ground floor slab to maintain adequate temperature and humidity levels in this building of contrasting climates and colours. rgm

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RCR Arquitectes revitalized an inner courtyard in Eixample with a district ­library and attached retirement home.

The factory chimney was left standing as a reminder of the property’s former industrial use.

Sant Antoni–Joan Oliver Library RCR Arquitectes

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The Dipòsit de les Aigües has housed the university library since 1999. Josep Fontseré designed the building as a

­water tower for the first World’s Fair in 1874. It provided water to an artificial waterfall in Ciutadella Park.

Library at Pompeu Fabra University Llus Clotet, Ignacio Paricio

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The Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich is a successful reconstruction from the 1980s.

Today, the architectural icon serves as an exhibition space for the Fondació Mies van der Rohe.

Barcelona Pavilion Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich

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First a textile factory, then a police ­station – now Josep Puig i Cadafalch’s modernista building from 1913 is a

­museum and event venue. CaixaBank had it converted into the CaixaForum in 2002.

CaixaForum Arata Isozaki

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Client: Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, Fundació Sala Beckett Structural design: Manuel Arguijo y ­Asociados Completion: 2017 Area: 2,923 m2 Use: Restaurant, theatre hall (200 seats), black box theatre (120 seats), vocational training

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Carrer de Pere IV 228, Sant Martí 🌐 salabeckett.cat @salabeckett #salabeckett

Flores & Prats Arquitectes

All Eras are Equal Sala Beckett Theatre

Sala Beckett is more than a performance hall; it is a comprehensive cultural and educational centre. Its name was inspired by the famous Irish writer Samuel Beckett, pictured in large-format photographs around the building. The corner building in the former industrial neighbourhood of Poblenou was built in 1924 to serve the working class. It comprised a grocery store, a community room for parties or playing cards, and later a dance hall and a small theatre. In 1935, the building was remodelled, and a school was added in the back. In the 1980s, the building was vacated until a supermarket and a sauna settled into it in the 1990s. Their stay was shortlived, however, and the building stood empty again, its roof leaking and its walls damaged by the rain. With their intervention, Flores & Prats preserved the traces of the various chapters of the building’s colourful history, sometimes relocating

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them. After making an inventory of every component worth keeping, every tile, every door, their search began: Where would which elements fit best? What should replace the missing parts? The interplay of old and new can be found in countless places throughout the building. For example, the tile floor was moved from the upper floor to the foyer and adjacent restaurant. Though they no longer match everywhere, their new arrangement creates new patterns in some places. Supplementing the old doors with their slender muntins are similar, though not identical, new doors. Salvaged stucco rosettes now adorn the wall in the foyer rather than the ceilings. The architects played with the relics from different eras, recombining them and experimenting – a way of working that also suits theatre people; here, they can develop new ideas and draw inspiration from the stories the building tells without prioritizing any particular era. The brown wall surfaces from the Franco period remain visible, as with the stucco, which is a few decades older. Only the black box theatre on the ground floor has been completely redesigned. For maximum artistic freedom, there is no stage, and the seating is flexible. This set-up also applies to the experimental theatre on the second floor and the rehearsal room, which is naturally lit with tall sliding windows, as are all the rooms in the building that are not used for performances. The old classrooms are still used as such: young talents learn playwriting in the smaller rooms and directing in the larger ones. During the planning phase, the budget was reduced from 8 million to 2.5 million euros. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to harm the project – the theatre is well visited, as is the restaurant on the ground floor – a place where theatre aficionados and local regulars can meet and exchange true and fictional stories about Sala Beckett. hw

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The old staircase at Sala Beckett is now just a pattern on the wall. The new stairs feature a sculptural railing reminiscent

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of the Arts and Crafts movement – one of the many elements that connect the past and the present.

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A skylight diffuses daylight onto the staircase. Surfaces from different eras are connected by the play of sunlight.

The artists’ dressing room on the ground floor also receives daylight from the ­windows above.

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Client: Barcelona d’Infrastructures Municipal, Museu d’História de Barcelona Structural design: BIS Structures Completion: 2020 Area: 2,456 m2 Use: Museum

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Carrer de Espronceda 142–146, Sant Martí 🌐 barcelona.cat/museuhistoria/en/ muhba-oliva-artes #museuhistoriabarcelona

BAAS Arquitectura

Grit and Glam Oliva Artés Museum

There is no mistaking old from new in this adaptive reuse project by Baas Arquitectura for the Barcelona History Museum (MUHBA) at Oliva Artés. The original building, a run-down, hundred-year-old brick and iron shed, appears almost unchanged for the most part. By contrast, the architects’ intervention upon both the interior and exterior of the shed consists of the addition of a series of abstract sculptural forms crafted from steel plate finished with a golden hue. The result resembles a minimalist art installation, one for which the weathered texture of the industrial shed serves as a character foil at the same time that its artfulness elevates the shed to the status of a museum.

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In reality, Baas’s “sculptures” are functional architectural elements. The rising beam at the back of the building takes up the fire escape; the two spirals inside the museum turn out to be staircases; and an abstract box frame at the front forms a generous entrance porch that shape-shifts into a lateral lift tower. This piece-by-piece design strategy permitted the renovation project to be realized more economically in phases, with the remaining third and final phase consisting of new windows for the shed. The intervention illustrates how our reception of art depends almost entirely on context, especially when it comes to minimalist art and its post-industrial display paradigm. Baas’s front porch and tower function as architectural cyphers, not only as a three-dimensional museum logo but also as a sign of the times – which is all the more interesting for a history museum. It encapsulates both Barcelona’s grimy industrial period, when it was known as the Manchester of the South, and its post-industrial contemporaneity as a design and leisure tourist destination. The razor-sharp contrast between the rough industrial halls and the gilded decorative art mirrors Barcelona’s yin-yang unity of grit and glam. rgm

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Site plan Scale 1:8000

The 100-year-old factory remained ­almost unchanged during its transformation into an art museum.

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Client: Barcelona d’Infraestructures ­Municipals Structural design: Boma, Anabel Lázaro Completion: 2015 Area: 842 m2 Garden: 609 m2 Use: Library

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Carrer de l’Arquitectura 8, Montbau 🌐 Ajuntament.barcelona.cat/ biblioteques/bibmontbau #bibmontbau

Oliveras Boix Arquitectes

Reading between City and Nature Montbau-Albert Pérez Baró Library

The Albert Pérez Baró Library forms part of Barcelona’s Montbau neighbourhood, an ambitious public housing project inspired by Berlin’s Interbau ‘57 building exhibition that is situated where the city’s uppermost limit meets the Serra de Collserola Natural Park. Originally built in 1958 as a primary school in the form of three identical freestanding pavilions with a pair of courtyard gardens in-between, the latest remodelling of this public neighbourhood library is actually the third time the building has been altered and added to. It was first transformed into a community library by a neighbourhood association in 1980, when the school relocated and left the building empty; and then again in 1990, when the library became an official

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branch of Barcelona’s municipal library system. This second transformation involved the construction of a flat-roofed, bar-shaped element that orthogonally connects the two pavilions to the north. In 2000, a second extension was built in the other courtyard, this time paralleling the form and spirit of the original shed-shaped pavilions. Finally, in 2015 Oliveras Boix Arquitectes was commissioned to undertake a complete overhaul of the library. Although they had the freedom to demolish the ad-hoc accumulation and start anew, they nevertheless opted for its rehabilitation in recognition of the popular collective memory embodied in it. Their project involved removing interior partitions that had been added over the years to create a brighter, more open facility, while the older structures were insulated and refurbished. The southern pavilions along Carrer de l’Arquitectura and the annex from 2000 are now enclosed by a new structure of steel and glass. A new infill, a shed-roof construction that closes one of the last remaining gaps on the site with a volume similar in size and proportion to the other modules, transforms the whole significantly. The existing collection of freestanding pavilions is now consolidated into a single building consisting almost entirely of parallel bays under a sawtooth roof, the 1990 flat-top being the only exception. The fully glazed end-walls of the new addition contrast with the older ribbon windows of the historical concrete and brick construction. A metal shed roof, with a taller counter-sloped segment made of metal meshing, screens mechanical equipment installed on the rooftop. The resulting assemblage both reveals and revels in an architecture of transformation, accretion, and bricolage. rgm

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First a primary school, then a community-­ dates to the 1950s. Its architecture was run library, and now a municipal ­library: inspired by the Interbau international the building with its bars and ­gardens architecture exhibition held in Berlin.

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Fabra i Coats is no longer a textile ­factory but a creative complex that ­includes an art gallery.

Industrial Heritage as an Opportunity Heide Wessely

BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

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The thought of Barcelona invokes images of its beach along the Mediterranean and, of course, Antoni Gaudí. But a closer look reveals another characteristic of the Catalan metropolis: until the 1970s, the city was an outstanding industrial location. Former factories, workers’ housing, and cooperative housing characterize the cityscape to this day. Barcelona’s industrial heritage is currently being revitalized in many areas thanks to efforts of the city administration and citizen initiatives.

Although industrialization began much later in Barcelona than in other European cities, it took over the city with full force. Around 1900, factories of various sizes sprang up across the city, many of them located in areas that were still independent at the time, such as Sants, Poblenou, and Gràcia. The textile industry was particularly important. The “Manchester of the South”, as Barcelona was sometimes called at the time, offered work, prosperity, and growth. Urban expansion became necessary to accommodate the many new workers this drew to the city, and Eixample was born – a district famous for its checkerboard pattern housing blocks designed by Ildefons Cerdà. Many modernista jewels date from the same period, such as Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló, built for Josep Batlló i Casanovas, whose entrepreneurial family ran one of the biggest textile factories, Can Batlló. Gaudí was also commissioned to design Park Güell, originally intended as a luxury residential complex, by Eusebi Güell, who was also a textile manufacturer and real estate magnate. Neighbourhood factories Historical traces of the industrial age persist throughout Barcelona today in the form of old smokestacks dotting the landscape, small workshops renovated into sports clubs, glassworks transformed into community centres, large factories serving as design hubs, and old warehouses providing living space for the creative scene. Yet many former industrial sites remain empty, waiting for a second or third life. One of the most prominent is Can Batlló, and illustrates the extent to which citizens in Barcelona are involved in urban development. Extending 158 CULTURE AND EDUCATION

BAAS Arquitectura gave new life to the oldest textile factory in the neighbourhood of Poblenou. Contemporary Catalan paintings by Fundació Vila Casas

can now be seen in the two refurbished buildings and the exposed concrete ­addition. The project is part of the urban development programme @22.

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In June 2011, residents of the Sants district had enough: they stormed the site of the former textile factory, Can Batlló, which had been sealed off by the city,

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and demanded the space for the common good. Today, community associations run a library, kindergarten, workshops, and a café there.

over 14.6 hectares, the former textile factory was forced to close in the 1960s. Numerous workshops and small businesses then settled on the premises, providing work for about 2,000 people. When the economic crisis in 2008 forced most of them to cease operations, the buildings began to deteriorate. Eventually, the city sealed off the area with a high fence. Several attempts to transform the site into a luxury residential development were thwarted by the 1976 “Plan General Metropolitano” (General Plan for the Metropolitan Region), which stipulated that area residents could use the Can Batlló site with its intact squares, paths, and green spaces. A community initiative grew out of this situation, giving the city government an ultimatum for the site’s revitalization in 2011. When no action was taken, citizens stormed the premises. Ultimately, the city council agreed to allocate some 13,000 m2 to a self-managed neighbourhood organization – which now operates a café, kindergarten, workshops, and a library. The architecture collective Lacol played a leading role in the project. Still enrolled at the university at the time, the young activist architects not only drew up the plans but also collaborated on their implementation. Working together to shape the city The idea of urban planning as a grassroots movement also applies to Fabra i Coats in the working-class neighbourhood of Sant Andreu. The large industrial site was once home to a textile factory, separated into two parts by the trade road to France. The factory was operational until 2006, and many of its former employees still live in the neighbourhood. They also protested loudly against the city’s plans to demolish the factory site and pursue a master plan to build high-rises in its place. For most of the buildings north of the trade road, the resistance came too late – today, a single historic building remains standing on a patch of green. But the campaigners were able to save the other side of the street, and initiated the development of a lively neighbourhood centre that includes a kindergarten, elementary school, offices, and an art gallery. A public housing project by Roldán + Berengué (p. 236) is also part of this vibrant community. Another of its highlights is the music school, which residents selected as part of a participatory process facilitated by the internet platform decidim.barcelona, where they can vote on the projects they want to see realized on the premises and how much money should be spent on them. This platform for citizen participation was introduced under the city administration led by leftist mayor Ada Colau, which explicitly desires citizen participation in grassroots decision-making processes. Can Batlló and Fabra i Coats are hardly isolated cases but are among several examples of the new era in urban ­Industrial Heritage as an Opportunity Heide Wessely

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planning in Barcelona. Even in Poblenou, where many of the old industrial buildings were razed and replaced by the Olympic Village, some of the buildings could be saved through citizen protests. Technology, culture, status symbol The city has since embraced the potential of its old industrial sites in  Poblenou in the Sant Martí district, and in 2000 launched one of  the  most extensive European revitalization programmes, called “22@Barcelona”. An urban quarter dedicated to technology and innovation is currently being built on the former 200-hectare industrial site, ­ ouvel’s along with much-needed housing. Modern landmarks like Jean N Torre Glòries coexist with 114 catalogued industrial monuments that are gradually taking on new uses. Various neighbourhood associations are ensuring that these new uses are not only profitable but also benefit the urban population through social and cultural facilities. For example, the former Can Felipa bleaching factory now houses a community centre designed by Josep Lluís Mateo, while Baas Arquitectura converted the Can Framis wool mill into a museum for Catalan art. New educational facilities are also springing up, like at the former Can Ricart cotton printing factory, which extends over four blocks in the neighbourhood

Oliveras Boix Arquitectes preserved only the outer shell of the former Alchemika plastic factory. Behind it, they built a

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new multifunctional building with a l­ibrary, retirement home, kindergarten, and community centre.

of Eixample. The complex will be transformed into the campus for the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Information and Audiovisual Media. From kindergartens to design hubs, these many new uses are being created on the initiative of three main groups: citizens demanding the revival of the factories where their grandparents once worked; the city government, which is commissioning a growing number of adaptive reuse projects; and private investors, who are creating their own monuments by transforming and saving old industrial sites. One of the best-known examples is CaixaForum from 2002, which Arata Isozaki transformed into a museum for contemporary art. The former textile factory was designed by one of the most influential architects of the Catalan Art Nouveau (also known as Modernisme), Josep Puig i Cadafalch. His building from 1913 was listed in 1976. Because the existing space was insufficient for the foundation of the Catalan bank Caixa and its sizeable collection, a considerable part of the spatial programme was built underneath the site at considerable expense. Casas fabricas for the creative scene Art and creativity are also increasingly taking hold in El Raval in the historic part of the city. The quarter is situated within the medieval city walls, which limited its growth for centuries. With the industrial revolution, many casas fabricas – small factories – sprang up on a small area, making El Raval the most densely populated neighbourhood in Europe. Living quarters faced the street, with workshops for spinning and weaving were situated in the back, invisible from the street. But behind the front door, time seems to stand still, as well-trodden stairs lead up to old workshop spaces, reminiscent of New York lofts. Thick, sagging beams rest on delicate steel supports, while large windows draw in plenty of natural light. Designers, architects, and artists have settled here, often without an official lease but on the premise of maintaining the buildings and being allowed to use them rent-free in return. Recently, the city administration has shown interest in the future of the factory buildings, also due to pressure from the creative scene. So far, 26 of them have been listed, and plans for their adaptive reuse have been commissioned. For example, one casa fabrica that the city bought back from a private investor is currently being converted into a youth centre. Reevaluation and reuse It wasn’t until the 1980s that the city introduced historic preservation for industrial facilities, which slowed down the rate of demolition considerably. The publication “Cent elements del Patrimoni Industrial a ­Industrial Heritage as an Opportunity Heide Wessely

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The casas fábrica were small factories where people also lived. Today, the site is home to a creative scene fighting to

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preserve the old buildings; 26 of them have since become designated historical monuments.

Catalunya” lists 100 industrial monuments worthy of preservation, and was soon expanded to 150 – including not only buildings but also water towers and smokestacks. One of the first conversions of a former factory building was Gottardo de Andreis Metalgraf in Badalona. In 1980, the factory that produced engraved metal containers was closed, and soon after, Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós transformed the building into a secondary school. The architect team renovated the well-preserved existing structure designed by Joan Amigó i Barriga in 1922, but also left their own legacy by replacing part of the facade with large glass elements – a feature that was ultra-modern at the time. Oliveras Boix Arquitectes took a different approach in transforming the former Alchemika plastics factory into a multi-use building with a library, kindergarten, retirement home, and community centre. Their intervention in 2015 preserved only the historic facade, behind which everything else is new. In the case of the Sala Beckett theatre by Flores & Prats Arquitectes (p. 132) and the Lleialtat Santsenca community centre by Harquitectes (p. 60), the architects preserved the historical fabric, uncovering and celebrating traces of different eras. Their own architectural intervention stays more in the background, as another piece of the mosaic in the buildings’ history. The ephemeral, the broken, and the rough remain visible – an architectural attitude that fits well socially and politically with our times.

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Client: Consorci de l’Educació de ­Barcelona Structural design: Jordi Payola Completion: 2019 Area: 7,611 m2 Use: Film school

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Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 173–175, Sants 🌐 emav.com #emav.EscolaDeMitjansAudiovisuals @emavescola

JAAS

Film School in a Factory EMAV School for ­Audiovisual Media

Escola de Mitjans Audiovisuals (EMAV) is a public vocational school for audiovisual and media technology, which occupies a 19th-century industrial building at Can Batlló, a large factory complex whose location was once considered outside of the Barcelona city bounds. The industrial building was restored and repurposed to enable reversibility, meaning the ability to deconstruct an intervention without affecting the historical host building. To achieve this, JAAS placed the school’s main programmatic uses within big, freestanding wooden boxes constructed upon the original building’s two floors and situating building services, access corridors, and other ancillary spaces in a separate volume along the northern exterior wall.

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The wooden boxes are set back from the historical exterior walls, leaving variably sized daylit margins of in-between space for horizontal circulation as well as work tables, display areas, and lounge furniture, where students can pass the time between classes. JAAS based the layout of the school for 600 students on that of the historical building. On the ground floor, where a grid of cast iron columns supports a Catalan-vaulted upper floor slab, relatively small spaces have been nestled, including classrooms, administrative offices, and meeting rooms. The column-free upper level accommodates larger spaces, like an auditorium, a television studio, and a sound studio beneath a roof supported by timber trusses.

The lower wooden box is divided into a smaller upper level and a larger lower level, creating a perimeter gallery overlooking the common areas on the ground floor. The wooden boxes are strongly characterized by a regular rhythm of wooden pilasters orientated orthogonally, like fins. They function as both vertical structural members as well as privacy louvres over classroom and office glazing – the view into these rooms is only possible when standing directly in front of them. The repetitive nature of the wood pilasters reflects the rational simplicity and standardization typical of 19th-century industrial architecture. This theme is carried through to the auditorium interior, whose walls are lined with vertical, sound-absorbing baffles finished in a bright “red carpet” colour as a mark of dignity and distinction. The original warehouse was left mostly untouched by the architectural intervention, save for historical window openings that required infilling, which was done matter-of-factly in similar brick to enable reversibility in case of future alterations. All the roof trusses were dismantled, cleaned, and reconstructed as part of the building restoration before adding a new zinc roof with diamond-patterned standing seams and triangle-shaped skylights. Although the new structure is clearly distinct from the old one, it complements the existing structure, serving as a model for the redevelopment of the rest of Can Batllò’s industrial buildings. rgm 168 CULTURE AND EDUCATION

Site plan Scale 1:8000

GSPublisherVersion 0.98.100.98

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1 Entrance 2 Foyer/displays/ lockers 3 Classroom 4 Work area 5 Equipment loans 6 Editing suites

7 Teaching staff, administration 8 Large hall, ­lectures/  assemblies 9 Student lounge 10 Digital archive 11 Servers

12 Cinema 13 Cloakroom 14 Theatre 15 TV studio 16 Photography 17 Radio 18 Recording ­studio

19 Production 20 Lounge/presentations 21 Pre-production/ repairs

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When the theatre opens to the neighbourhood, the doors to the school itself are locked. Only the staircase remains

open, leading guests straight upstairs into the bright red auditorium.

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Client: Barcelona d’Infraestructures ­Municipals Structural design: Eskubi Turroó ­arquitectes Completion: 2018 Area: 4,005 m2 Use: Library, meeting rooms, FabLab

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Comptes de Bell-Lloc 192–200, Les Corts 🌐 barcelona.cat/bibmontserratabello #bibmontserratabelló

Ricard Mercadé / Aurora Fernández arquitectes

From Silk Ribbons to Book Ribbons Montserrat Abelló Library

Montserrat Abelló Library is housed in one of Spain’s first reinforced concrete buildings. Designed by the Swiss civil engineer Robert Maillart in the 1920s, the former factory produced silk ribbons until 1984. It comprises two parts: a three-storey office building and the old weaving mill with its sawtooth roof. Incident light only entered the historic hall through the north-facing sheds; otherwise, it was as closed as the ground floor of the office wing. Opening up the structure was therefore an essential aspect of the redesign. Architects Ricard Mercadé and Aurora Fernández inserted vertical window slits into the hall facades and had the entire north side replaced by a glass-lined steel structure so that the library’s central room is now visible from the street. Passers-by can look inside to see readers, bookshelves, and the supporting

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structure with its slender columns bearing the roof. The facade on the long side, where the entrance is located, is also transparent at street level. A massive reinforced concrete beam above a few mighty columns supports the upper levels and allows for generous glazing on the ground floor. The windows are framed by black steel profiles, whose precise contours form a strong contrast to the raw concrete surfaces. The architects’ selection of materials reflects the combination of old and new: clay-coloured plaster was used to cover the masonry of the historic structure, while the new elements are made of concrete, steel, and timber. Pinewood characterizes the library entrance, fostering a warm atmosphere. Inside, the foyer opens up to the roof. The architect duo removed parts of the former ceilings to create the double-height atrium, which floods the interior with natural light and spatially links the two previously separate parts of the building. To the right of the entrance, a fabrication lab (FabLab) with 3D printers can be used by local schools and community makers who want to turn their creative ideas into reality. Three rooms on the second floor can be used for various community events free of charge; companies must pay a rental fee.

The rest of the building is occupied by the district library. More than just a lending library, it provides a welcoming space for reading, learning, and working. The different reading zones are designed similarly to a living room, with sofas, table lamps, armchairs, and side tables by Spanish designers. The furniture in wood and steel was designed by the architects themselves, along with the niches where benches and a long table create spaces for conversation – elsewhere throughout the library, silence reigns. A wooden box, situated parallel to one of the atriums, provides a separate area for children to do arts and crafts. Here, openings were cut into the sheds to foster air circulation. Thick thermal insulation and a sophisticated heating and ventilation system in the floor helped the new library in Les Corts earn the Breeam Very Good label. The public library is named after the Catalan poet and translator Montserrat Abelló i Soler. hw

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Even today, the two different parts its ­sawtooth roof and then the taller buildof the complex are immediately recoging, which previously served as the office nizable: there is the factory building with wing of the converted ribbon factory.

Site plan Scale 1:5000

15 Montserrat Abelló Library Ricard Mercadé / Aurora Fernández arquitectes ○

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1 Entrance 2 Foyer 3 FabLab 4 Transformers

5 Info desk 6 Terrace 7 Children’s ­library

8 Main library 9 Multimedia 10 Conference room

11 Rental space 12 Closed stacks 13 Storage 14 Administration/ Staff

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15 Montserrat Abelló Library Ricard Mercadé / Aurora Fernández arquitectes ○

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Client: Lycée Français de Barcelone Structural design: BIS Structures Completion: 2019 Area: 3,400 m2 Use: Preschool

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Carrer de Munner 5, Sant Gervasi 🌐 lfb.es/la-maternelle @lfb_barcelone

b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos

Multilingual and ­Multicultural French Preschool

The Catalan bourgeoisie settled in the neighbourhood of Bonanova in the early 20th century, forming a community of palatial villas. Today, many of the magnificent private buildings now house institutions and schools – including two identical villas from the 1920s, on whose grounds the Lycée Français de Barcelone preschool (Maternelle) now stands. The school’s main campus is located about 3 km away. For the preschool expansion, the architects had one of the dilapidated villas demolished and erected a much larger structure in its place. Its impressive size is toned down by the volume’s rounded corners – a nod to the architecture of its predecessor – and the

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colourful facade. Its vertical fins in white, yellow, and orange are arranged in different-sized horizontal bands, which makes the actual floor heights difficult to discern. As a result, the five-storey building appears less dominant in relation to the villa opposite, which is only two storeys high. Taking advantage of the topography, the architects hid much of the lower level in the hillside. The entrance was moved to the semi-basement level on the valley side, where the floor-to-ceiling transparent glass facade creates a bright, open area for drop-off and pick-up. A wide outdoor staircase leads from the entrance area up to the playground, where leafy trees provide shade in summer. Some of the older conifers were tastefully integrated into the newly paved playing surface. This central courtyard serves as a link between the new building and the historic villa. Here, too, the team from b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos played with the patterns of the facade’s colourful metal slats, using them for fencing and the balustrades to visually unify the entire complex in a spirit of playfulness and joy. The rooms of the old villa now hold offices, a music room, and a library with over 5,600 books. In the new building, each age group is assigned to one of the three upper floors. On the lowest level, where the entrance is also located, the children can play and tumble in a multipurpose room and enjoy mealtimes in the cafeteria. Then they head out to one of the three outdoor play areas: the central courtyard, the large first-floor terrace that flows into a walkway to the villa, or the roof, where the little ones can let off steam on the colourful patterns of the artificial turf. Around 400 children currently attend the preschool, which is overseen by the French Ministry of Culture and has an outstanding reputation – Spanish, Catalan, and English are taught there, and at pick-up time, the narrow street in front of the building fills with French voices. hw

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Site plan Scale 1:5000

Grundstücksgrenzen ???

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Section, floor plans Scale 1:1000 

1 Deliveries 2 Entrance 3 Multipurpose room 4 Kitchen 5 Cafeteria 6 Classroom

7 Quiet zone 8 WC 9 Play area 10 Utility room 11 Foyer old ­building 12 Library

13 Music room 14 Classroom 15 Language lab 16 Reception / administration 17 Conference room

18 Staff 19 Teachers’ lounge 20 Principal’s ­office 21 Play area on balcony

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The roof is also accessible to the chilon the patterned artificial turf and ­explore the permanently installed dren as one of the preschool’s several outdoor playscapes. Kids can run around ­educational activities.

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Client: Agrupació Pedagògica Sant ­Nicolau Structural design: DSM arquitectes Completion: 2014 Area: 1,677 m2 Use: Primary school

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Carrer del Jardí 72–80, Sabadell 🌐 santnicolau.com #santnicolausbd @santnicolau

Harquitectes

Colourful Community School 906

For this primary school refurbishment project, the architects made minimal changes to modernize and subtly organize the existing building complex with its rough, tactile materiality while preserving its patina. School 906 is located on the corner of a dense block in the centre of Sabadell, an industrial city about 20 km northwest of Barcelona. Two volumes frame a large courtyard, with a sports hall in the basement. The architects’ intervention was limited to the older of the two buildings and the outdoor spaces. Built in 1959, the structure was not listed, yet it possessed a charisma that the architects felt worthy of preservation. They decided to renovate and maintain much of the historical substance, such as its vaulted ceilings and street-facing exposed brickwork.

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The redesign places a strong focus on the needs of children, using the schoolyard and rooftops to create sheltered outdoor play areas where students can move around freely. The biggest playground is on the building’s flat roof, which was reinforced and supplemented by a flight of stairs, beneath which another play zone was created. From the terrace, children can now look across the city under the protection of light-coloured sunshades. At the main entrance, a new foyer establishes a welcoming space for orientation and communication. Here, the old brick walls combine with new steel columns and concrete block walls for an exciting architectural effect.

The most significant intervention is the extension of the main wing on the south side of the schoolyard. Although it was not required as part of the competition, this additional element is what won over the jury. Conditions in the north wing were cramped. Since the adjacent street prevented the building’s expansion in that direction, the architects extended it toward the courtyard by adding a 3 m deep steel structure in front of it. The middle access corridor on the ground floor was left intact, but on the upper floors, it was moved to the opposite side of the central load-bearing wall. By doing so, they could increase the size of the rooms on the street side from 35 to 50 m2. The new facade is fronted by perforated steel louvres that reduce the strong solar radiation by 20 %; during the winter months, their horizontal position helps to keep in the heat. Where the louvres meet the windowsills, the children make use of the space for growing plants. The new 50 cm space between the louvres and the facade, which is divided into narrow units by vertical posts made of sturdy Douglas fir, aids ventilation and acts as a thermal buffer. sd

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The school building from 1959 did not the existing fabric and added a steel stand under historical protection, but it structure in front of it, which also prostill had charm. The architects preserved tects against the sun.

Site plan Scale 1:4000

Section existing building

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1 Kindergarten, primary school

3 Administration, cafeteria, secondary school

2 Schoolyard and underground sports hall

4 Rooftop playground above sports hall ­entrance

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Anna Ramos in conversation with Sandra Hofmeister

European Perspectives

BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

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For more than two decades, Fundació Mies van der Rohe has been known for its prestigious biannual European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture | Mies van der Rohe Awards. The award by the European Commission and the Fundació in Barcelona honours outstanding examples of European architecture and urban planning. The Fundació’s commitment to architecture also includes the support of regional and local perspectives on Barcelona. With its programme of exhibitions, congresses and workshops, it has become a city-renowned platform for architecture education, reaching a broad audience. Anna Ramos has been the director of Fundació Mies van der Rohe since 2016. In this interview, she explains why European and local perspectives on architecture are important to sustain the discourse.

The Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich is a compelling icon of modern architecture. How did it come to pass that the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition, which was demolished, was later reconstructed in the 1980s? When the original German Pavilion was demolished right after Expo 1929, it became an icon, inspiring generations of architects. The fact that it no longer existed likely made it an even stronger symbol of perfection. The pavilion became a reference for architects worldwide. Already in the 1950s, a group of young architects from Barcelona thought it would be great to get the building back for the city. They wrote to Mies van der Rohe, and he agreed to rebuild it. But it was only many years later that this was possible – in the 1980s when democracy had returned to Spain. The building was recon198 CULTURE AND EDUCATION

structed in the exact same place it was before. In-depth research was conducted as part of a very fruitful collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin. Thanks to that, stone for the structure could be sourced from some of the original quarries as well as nearby quarries. Were there critics of the reconstruction? There was quite an interesting intellectual controversy: Should we rebuild something that is not there anymore? Today, after more than 30 years and after millions of architects have visited the reconstructed pavilion, this controversy is over. We always clearly explain to our guests that the building is not the original but a reconstruction. Architecture should be visited and walked around in; experiencing the spaces yourself is a great way to learn about it. The

main purpose behind reconstructing 1929 was a building for research and the pavilion was to provide this experimentation. For Mies van der experience of a masterpiece. Rohe and Lilly Reich, it was an opportunity to realize their ideas in Today, the Fundació Mies van der physical form. So, the pavilion was Rohe uses the pavilion as an experimental in both its design and exhibition space. Your mission is, construction. Once completed, the on the one hand, the diligent care small building transformed the way of this architectural heritage. And of building worldwide. Today, we on the other hand, the Fundació follow this mindset and this path of is a driver of contemporary archi- Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. We try to keep up with the spirit of tecture discourse. How do you our time through architecture. This bring both sides together? is probably the strongest connection between the original pavilion and contemporary architecture.

“Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich turned their ideas and research into reality – changing the way people build all over the world.”

The Fundació was established to reconstruct what we now call the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. Soon after, we launched the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (EUmies Award). Spain entered the European Union in 1986, and we had wonderful supporters like Xavier Rubert de Ventós, a philosopher and Spanish member of the EU Parliament, who advocated for the idea of an European Architecture Award as a means to strengthen Europe in terms of culture. The original Barcelona Pavilion from Anna Ramos in conversation with Sandra Hofmeister

Today, the EUmies Award has a long list of winners. Recently there has been a clear focus on social responsibility. Is that one of the award’s standard criteria? We look for excellence in architecture in general. Each jury must define anew what exactly this means. And, of course, following the idea of architecture representing the spirit of the time, the jury often addresses social and political issues as part of its deliberations. The Fundació’s programme includes young people. Why is it important to target the next generation on a local level? That’s crucial in my eyes. We welcome many youngsters from primary and high schools and tell them not only about the building itself, but also about the creative processes of architecture. We want them to learn architectural thinking and how to 199

look at spaces like architects do. Our purpose is also to reach out to adults who are not familiar with architecture at all. We think we have an extraordinary opportunity to tell them more about it, to open their mind so they can enjoy spaces and see contemporary architecture with new eyes. Contemporary architecture is increasingly about refurbishing existing buildings, transforming old structures to give them a new life. How have you addressed that? Understanding the heritage of architecture in the existing environment is extraordinarily connected with understanding the social context, the urban context, the building sector, the needs of the inhabitants, and the evolution of how people live in cities. We do not speak in terms of heritage “restoration” but about reusing buildings or keeping the same use but

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improving the standards. We have extraordinary old buildings all over Europe – the built heritage is part of our cities and streets. It is part of our daily life, so keeping those buildings alive is better for everyone. There are extraordinary examples that bring together a love for the old and respect for the achievements of our predecessors with adaptive reuse for today’s contexts. You had a focus on Lilly Reich in recent years, which brings me to the question of women in architecture. What is your perspective on that? When I started at Fundació Mies van der Rohe, I proposed a Lilly Reich grant for equality in architecture. We have since had three editions of this grant. It started as a way to gather more information on Lilly Reich herself. But now we have widened the focus: the winning fellows of the latest edition proposed to conduct a

Many Fundaciò Mies van der Rohe exhibitions travel across Europe. With them, the foundation aims to inspire a broad

public for both the winners of the European award and contemporary architecture in general.

research on Anna Bofill Levi, a Barcelona-based female architect now in her 80s. She realized some extraordinary transdisciplinary, participatory projects more than 50 years ago. We can pass on her valuable first-hand knowledge to younger ­generations. Lilly Reich, for instance, was well known during her time, but she was forgotten after her death. It took a huge effort to make her visible again today. That’s why we must ensure that no one is forgotten and keep the genealogies alive. Our mothers and grandmothers must be credited if we want our daughters and granddaughters to know about our own achievements. We always have to keep the flame burning; if the fire goes out, you have to light it up again. It is much harder to be a pioneer than to follow what others did – that’s why female role models are so important.

will be presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in an exhibition as a collateral event; the award ceremony and accompanying discussions will also take place in Venice. As for Barcelona: We are in charge of organizing activities for the UNESCO-­ UIA World Capital of Architecture in 2026. Barcelona will host that year the World Congress of the Union of International Architects (UIA) and, on behalf of the city council, we will organize all the annual congress events. Please save the date!

Last question: What are your current projects? One of our many projects is the 2023 edition of the Young Talent Award, the category of the EUmies Award focusing on diploma projects. It is open to architecture schools across Europe, and in this year’s edition, we also invited African architecture schools. We aim to invite other continents in every edition. We started with Asian countries, then invited some Latin American countries, and this year we will have African schools participating. It’s pretty exciting; we are learning a lot through this process. The awards Anna Ramos in conversation with Sandra Hofmeister

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Client: Consorcio de Educación de ­Barcelona Structural design: Àrea 5 Landscape architecture: Miquel Espinet Completion: 2011 Area: 822 m2 Use: Daycare centre

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Carrer d’Europa 41, Les Corts

Espinet / Ubach

Camouflage by Day – Beacon by Night Bressol Xiroi Daycare Centre Since the opening of the Escola Bressol Xiroi daycare centre, the black locust trees at Carrer d’Europa 41 have grown tall, their canopies almost obscuring the building. With its green and ochre tones, the perforated corrugated cladding on the facade blends with the trees’ lush foliage. When the sun shines and the wind stirs the branches, a play of light and shadow animates the facade. But the shell that envelops the property also serves a very practical purpose: protecting the children inside. Unlike most educational institutions in Spain, which are surrounded by massive, high walls, Escola Bressol Xiroi’s protective shell allows views inside. The degree of transparency changes depending on the viewing angle and how much the corrugated metal overlaps. Generous openings are cut into the facade in three places, providing an unobstructed view of the playground and interior spaces. The facade appears closed in other areas, where the three-storey school building is closer to the perforated envelope. But things are different on the inside, where the

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six group rooms open onto the courtyard with floor-to-ceiling windows. When their doors are open, interior and exterior merge so the children can play in the shade of a tree or under the big awnings on the expansive balcony on the upper floor. A flight of exterior stairs connects the two outdoor areas, with a large grille door at the top to keep the two- to three-year-olds safe. At the pointed end of the building, a multifunctional room on the upper level measures nearly 100 m2, with daylight filtering through the perforated sheet from two sides. At night, the windows behind the perforated shell stand out like glowing square surfaces, while the floor-to-ceiling glazing of the group rooms transforms the building into a luminous body. For passers-by, the perforated skin appears almost transparent, the steel supporting structure draws patterns in the darkness, and the layering of the shell, supporting structure, and glass facade becomes even more apparent. With its sharp triangular shape, the plot was a challenging site to build on. But by placing a separate structure inside an outer shell that is at once transparent, opaque, and closed, Espinet / Ubach succeeded in creating a visually complex building with a small footprint. They emphasize the pointed corner by allowing the metal facade to rise at this point, forming a tall, sharp corner that marks the entrance to a small park on the side of the structure facing away from the street. That is also where the daycare’s entrance is located – a glass door with a bright orange frame in an exposed concrete base. Colourful, childlike graffiti hints at the building’s use. The site was originally part of the Cristalleries Planell glassworks – just across the street is the community centre of the same name by Harquitectes, whose patchwork of masonry from various historical periods speaks a very different architectural language. Nevertheless, the two neighbours harmonize wonderfully with their historical and contemporary contrasts. hw

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Site plan Scale 1:5000

18 Bressol Xiroi Daycare Centre Espinet / Ubach ○

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Client: Universitat Autònoma de ­Barcelona Structural design: Boma Completion: 2017 Area: 8,237 m2 Use: Research institute

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UAB Campus Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès 🌐 uab.cat/icta #icta-uab @icta.stories

Harquitectes, dataAE

Science in a Greenhouse Autonomous University of Barcelona Research Centre

The new research building on the Bellaterra campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) presents itself as an austere cube with a simple louvred facade of steel and polycarbonate panels. Behind it, however, is a complex structure made of of concrete and wood with a sophisticated ventilation and climate system. Located 20 km northwest of Barcelona’s city centre, the campus is home to numerous university facilities as well as more than 800 student apartments. This new university building is located on a patch of green at the southern edge of the campus adjacent to the highway and accommodates research facilities for environmental sciences and paleontology. The sustainability requirements for the new complex, whose five floors hold

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lecture rooms, offices, and laboratories, were correspondingly high. Parking areas and storage are situated mainly underground on two basement levels. Catalonia’s hot, humid summers and the high heat loads generated in the high-tech spaces called for a well-designed ventilation strategy. The architects grouped insulated timber boxes around four atriums that serve as a buffer zone. Enclosing the entire volume is a standardized, cost-effective greenhouse system, with polycarbonate panels that can open partially like flaps. In summer, warm air rises behind this outer skin and in the building-high atriums and escapes through flaps in the roof. Fresh air flowing in from outside is cooled in a cavity beneath the building and then directed into the atriums. In winter, the polycarbonate panels remain closed, and the air behind them warms the courtyards and office cubes, which are equipped with ventilation flaps. The reinforced concrete structure with its thick ceiling slabs has a high thermal mass. Large ducts running through the middle of the slabs reduce their dead weight and channel air that has been preheated along support beams underground. Reinforcing steel and conduits for the thermoactive system are above and below that. This concept supports the three different climate zones in the building: the zones heated and cooled by passive systems, such as the atrium and lounge areas; the offices, which can be additionally heated; and the air-conditioned labs. Experimental greenhouses at the top on the fifth floor provide users with homegrown vegetables, while lush vegetation in the atrium improves the indoor climate. sd

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Site plan Scale 1:4000

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The climate concept for winter and ­summer is based on the thermal mass activation and passive ventilation.

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Client: Consorci d’Educació de ­Barcelona Structural design: Manuel Arguijo Landscape design: Manel Colominas Completion: 2021 Area: 5,400 m2 Use: Kindergarten and primary school, public institution

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Plaça de Sant Bernat Calbó 2, Sant Martí 🌐 lamarbella.cat @escolamarbella

SUMO Arquitectes

A School in Dialogue with the Community La Mar Bella Primary School

La Mar Bella – the beautiful sea – is the name of this school for children aged 3 to 12. Despite the sea’s proximity, it is not visible from here; the buildings in the former working-class district of Poblenou are too high, almost hugging the school on three sides. The school campus consists of a building from 1953, a new classroom building, and a new sports hall. The three structures create outdoor spaces with very different qualities. The back of the new, long classroom building borders the terraces of the adjacent residential buildings; a trellised grid on the two upper floors provides some visual distance. Meanwhile, the sports hall, which connects to the new building along a glass-enclosed bridge, opens up at the back with floor-to-ceiling windows to a narrow, busy

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pedestrian zone. The bustle of daily life reflects in the windows, blending with the activities in the hall. Interior and exterior merge – not only visually but also in terms of the programme: the sports hall building, which includes a workshop and library on the upper floor, can be used by the neighbourhood. Community meetings can be held there free of charge, local sports clubs train in the gym after school hours, and a mobile stage allows for theatre performances and concerts. The two long sides of the gym are more closed in design. Its exposed concrete walls with varied finishes form narrow alleys with opposite workers’ houses. These lead to a spacious plaza in front of the hall, which opens to the public with a row of folding glass doors. If teachers and students need a break from curious spectators, the doors remain closed, and a turquoise curtain blocks the view. The architects of Sumo play with the surroundings and the theme of interaction in many places throughout the complex. For example, the connecting bridge between the school building and the sports hall is only high enough not to obscure the listed facade of the townhouse behind it. Sunshades in light-coloured fabric cast shadows while allowing light through. Vertical wooden lamellas serve both as sun protection and as a unifying element between the three buildings. The former gym in the original building now holds a cafeteria, which Sumo extended with a glass enclosure, creating a bright, airy atmosphere. All suspended ceilings were removed to reveal the fireproofed steel structure and cap ceilings above. Ventilation ducts and electrical lines were also left visible. This also applies to the existing classrooms on the floor above, which now benefit from a practical front zone thanks to a new wide corridor. Inside, the difference between the old and new buildings is barely noticeable. Wood, dark fibre cement panels, white wall surfaces, and concrete blocks define the rooms, all of which can be cross-ventilated. A traffic light system indicates when the CO2 level rises and the windows should be opened. If the traffic light turns red, the ventilation system kicks in automatically. Using a variety of measures, such as decentralized ventilation with heat recovery, air source heat pump, thick insulation, ventilation chimneys in the gym, solar thermal energy and photovoltaic panels that double as a sunshade, Sumo has created a nearly zero energy building (NZEB) – still a rarity in Spain. hw

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Site plan Scale 1:8000

20 La Mar Bella Primary School SUMO Arquitectes ○

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 Housing for People in Need Straddle3, Eulia Arkitektura, 21 APROP  Yaiza Terré  Fabra i Coats Apartments Roldán + Berengué 22  ­ ooperative Lacol 23 La Borda Housing C Interview Lacol: Working Together to Shape the City  ­ ooperative Lacol, La Boqueria 24 La Balma Housing C  Caracol Residential Building Estudio Herreros, MIM-A 25  26 Apartment Building Lola Domènech, Lussi Studio  27 Alí  Bei Social Housing Arquitectura Produccions, Pau Vidal, ­Vivas ­Arquitectos Essay  Housing and Politics Jelena Prokopljević  28 85 Subsidized Apartments Peris+Toral Arquitectes  29 57  Student Dwellings dataAE, Harquitectes  Júlia Senior Residence Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons, R ­ icard Galiana 30 Torre 

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Pau Vidal and Vivas Arquitectos designed includes 32 dwellings and diverse coma low-cost cooperative building on land mon areas. leased from the city. The programme

La Chalmeta Pau Vidal Vivas Arquitectos

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Antonio Gaudí’s first major project was the Casa Vicens, completed in 1885. The former summer residence was privately

occupied for many years; since 2017, it has been open to the public. The original appearance of the staircase is unknown.

Casa Vicens Antonio Gaudí

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Ricardo Bofill’s Walden 7 subsidized housing project has seven courtyards. Residents can meet along its many

­corridors, staircases, and niches, whose different surface materials are coloured in various shades of blue.

Walden 7 Housing Complex Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura

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Client: Ajuntament de Barcelona, ­Derechos Sociales Structural design: Jon Begiristain & Ibai Lamarca (Eulia), Jordi Granada (­Straddle3) Completion: 2019 Area: 816 m2 Use: Temporary accommodation for people in need of shelter

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Nou de Sant Francesc 8–10, Ciutat Vella

Straddle3, Eulia Arkitektura, Yaiza Terré

Old Containers, New Use APROP Housing for People in Need

In Barcelona’s inner-city neighbourhoods, rents are steadily rising. Vacation units and luxury apartments have become a lucrative business, causing affordable housing to disappear. Through the Aprop programme, the city aims to address this crisis by providing temporary housing for people who have become homeless. The first Aprop building is located in the Gothic Quarter of Ciutat Vella (Old Town), on a corner lot enclosed by firewalls. It is based on a building system designed by Straddle3 in collaboration with Jon Begiristain and Yaiza Terré that enables the city to respond to the demand for temporary housing at short notice. In the spirit of circular construction, old shipping containers are reused as room modules, extending their useful life beyond the

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usual ten years. Buildings based on this modular system can be quickly assembled and reassembled in a new constellation at a different location. The 12 shipping containers are mounted, as if on a table, atop a steel support structure anchored in the ground by micropiles. One of the topmost containers holds the building services. A twist-lock system commonly used on ships, freight trains, and trucks is used to connect the containers with the supporting structure. The structure’s columns and beams allow for an open floor plan on the ground floor, currently occupied by a nearby healthcare facility. Each of the four levels above that consists of two one-bedroom dwellings and one two-bedroom dwelling. A single container is used for the smaller units for singles and couples, measuring around 30 m2. Two containers are connected to create 60 m2 two-room apartments for families of up to four people. On the southeast side, which opens onto a small courtyard with a stair tower and elevator, the dwellings are connected by covered walkways. On the northwest side, narrow loggias with vertical floor-to-ceiling openings look onto a small square. This gives each residential unit at least two external walls for good cross-ventilation. Additional daylight is provided to the two-room apartments through windows on the southeast side. Difficult soil conditions and the narrow, busy alleys in the historic city centre posed a challenge during construction. To avoid blocking ­traffic, 85 % of the individual elements were assembled at a workshop. Construction time was minimal: it took less than two days to erect the basic structure, with residents moving in just four months later. bz

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Site plan Scale 1:2500

21 APROP Housing for People in Need Straddle3, Eulia Arkitektura, Yaiza Terré ○

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Recycled shipping containers are ­concealed behind a double-skin facade of weatherproof plasterboard and

­polycarbonate. Despite the low-cost materials, the building exudes a sense of high quality and good design.

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21 APROP Housing for People in Need Straddle3, Eulia Arkitektura, Yaiza Terré ○

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Client: Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació, Ajuntament de Barcelona Structural design: Bernuz-Fernández arquitectes Completion: 2019 Area: 5,392 m2 Use: Social housing, temporary artist housing, sports hall

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Carrer de Parellada 9, Sant Andreu 🌐 fabraicoats.bcn.cat #FabraiCoats_Centredart

Roldán + Berengué

Factory for Creatives Fabra i Coats Apartments

The former textile factory Fabra i Coats is the size of a small village. Some 3,000 people worked there in its heyday, spinning yarn and thread. Now the creative scene has moved into many of its old halls and buildings – including a two-storey block measuring 100 x 14 metres that borders the high property wall to the south. Built in 1905, the former warehouse now holds 41 social housing units for young people, plus five temporary apartments for artists. Recreational spaces are also part of the complex, including a four-storey hall offering space for a local club to practice the Catalan national sport of castellets, in which teams of around 20 men, women, and children form a human tower. The architects’ goal was to preserve the character of the existing buildings as faithfully as possible. Designed for reversibility,

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all of the installations use lightweight construction and are modular and self-supporting without directly connecting to or interfering with the historical structure. The timber dwelling modules extend over four floors in what was once a two-storey block. They are set back from the old thick brick wall on both sides, creating a four-storey air space facing the street that doubles as a climate buffer. The side facing the courtyard has covered walkways that serve less as a circulation area but act more like a catwalk, a liminal zone between inside and outside. It also functions somewhat like a shop window, offering a clear view through the former factory’s large windows, whose glass has now been replaced by a thin wire mesh. Neighbours’ conversations are audible in the hallway, along with the clatter of keys when residents open the door to their apartments. Metal grilles protect against intruders and provide fall protection while allowing fresh air to sweep through the building. Inside the dwellings, the architects installed sturdy security grilles in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing burglar-proof cross-ventilation even when no one is home. The central meeting point in the building is the open hall, which reaches up to the roof and widens dramatically towards the top. Inside and outside, old and new, tenants and visitors meet in this space, and where the building opens up to the city through a gap in the property wall. The creative quarter invites people from the neighbourhood to explore its evolution on the former factory premises. An art gallery has already settled in, joining the artist studios and workshops. Exhibitions, festivals, and events take place regularly. However, a considerable number of old factory buildings are waiting to be filled with life again after many years of vacancy. hw

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Site plan Scale 1:5000

22 Fabra i Coats Apartments Roldán + Berengué ○

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two-storey structure. This will prevent damage to the historic fabric during ­dismantling.

22 Fabra i Coats Apartments Roldán + Berengué ○

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22 Fabra i Coats Apartments Roldán + Berengué ○

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Client: Cooperativa La Borda Structural design: Miguel Nevado Completion: 2018 Area: 3,000 m2 Use: Housing cooperative, organic food store

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Carrer de la Constitució 85–89, Sants-Monjuïc 🌐 laborda.coop @bordacoop

Lacol

Collective Living Pioneer La Borda Housing ­Cooperative

Anyone strolling along Carrer de la Costitució in the Sants district would hardly expect to find an innovative residential building behind the windowless facade of corrugated acrylic panels at number 85. From 2012 to 2018, its residents worked with the architecture collective Lacol to develop the housing cooperative La Borda. What sparked the project was the question of how to create long-term affordable housing in a tight housing market that eventually crashed. After numerous participatory workshops with the neighbourhood and potential residents, the  members of Lacol were able to win over the city, which granted them the property on a ground lease. The project also marks the first time in Barcelona that a supporting structure made of cross-laminated

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timber (CLT) was realized on such a large scale, and that bicycle parking was chosen over an underground car park. An organic food co-op on the ground floor and a two-storey public passageway to the new neighbourhood park in the courtyard lend to the building’s inviting aura despite its minimalist street facade. The true face of the building is the south facade facing the park. In summer, the sun blinds hang over the continuous balconies like one large wooden curtain. In winter, residents can enjoy the warmth of the low-lying sun. Only the larger of the 28 apartments face south, while the smaller dwellings on the fourth and fifth floors face north with their ribbon windows. Despite the absence of a balcony on these levels, they remain pleasantly cool in summer. As compensation, all residents have access to numerous collective spaces and outdoor areas. The main communication space is the seven-storey hall. Neither heated nor insulated, it keeps a pleasant temperature even in winter. An acrylic glass greenhouse roof opens wide for ventilation and smoke extraction. Generous bicycle parking is available on the hall’s ground floor and leads through the open communal kitchen and a multipurpose room to a terrace overlooking the public park. Covered walkways providing access to the apartments on the upper floors wrap around the space like boxes in a theatre. Located directly behind the translucent acrylic glass facade, a double-height open space on the north side can be used as a stage for events. During the day, children can zoom around this multifunctional piano nobile in their go-carts. A row of washing machines lines the wall; they will be partitioned off later into a utility room once the cooperative has enough funds. Located next to the photovoltaic system at the top of the building is a green meadow where residents can relax and take in the view across the rooftops to the nearby hill of Monjuïc. fk

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The common room with the kitchen overlooks the development area of the former factory site of Can Batlló.

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Workshops, a daycare centre, a brewery, and spaces for art and artists will be built here.

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Eliseu Arrufat and Carles Baiges of Lacol in conversation with Heide Wessely

Working Together to Shape the City BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

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Ten years ago, a group of young architects came together to form the Lacol cooperative. In 2022, they received the EUmies Award for Emerging Architects for their cooperative apartment building La Borda. Eliseu Arrufat and Carles Baiges represent the collective of 13 members. They have their office in the Sants neighbourhood at La Comunal, a former factory that they converted into a small cultural quarter. That, too, is organized as a cooperative.

You integrate users into your planning processes as long-term partners. Why is this such a fundamental aspect of your approach? Carles Baiges: Before we moved here three years ago, we had our practice in an old store around the corner for ten years. We were still students when we first started out. The street in front of the store eventually became a pedestrian zone, and passers-by could see us working through the windows. That brought us into contact with people from the neighbourhood, who asked us many questions and for advice. They also asked us about the Can Batlló factory site, which had been closed, and which the people of Sants wanted back. The district is known for its cooperatives, non-profit associations, and squatter scene. We exchanged 254 AT HOME IN THE CITY

many ideas with people from the area and decided to organize ourselves as a collective. This dialogue played a central role for us from the beginning, and we believe it allows us to make our work more effective, social, and sustainable. The citizens of Barcelona are very active in urban development issues. Why do you think that the people here are so involved? CB: In some areas, the community is so engaged because of its strong connection to the factories in the past; the workers formed unions and joined left-leaning political parties. Back then, the labour conditions at the factories and the workers’ overall quality of life were miserable. People had to organize to fight for improvements. There is a tradition of self-or-

ganization, and this spirit is still very much alive. Today they say: “The city won’t give us a music school? All right, then we’ll build it ourselves.” And to do so, they form community associations, cooperatives, or clubs. Eliseu Arrufat: Another reason may be that during the civil war that raged here from 1936 to 1939, people had to manage things on their own for two years when there was no city administration or government. Maybe it’s a romantic view, but I think it influenced the urban population’s cohesion and assertiveness.

Lacol members stand on the balcony at the cultural quarter La Comunal, where the architecture collective has its office.

During the Spanish Civil War, many political prisoners were held at La Model, a prison from the early 20th century. You worked with the community to develop a programme for its reuse – how did that work out? CB: In 2018, the city council asked us to talk with local residents to determine their needs, and the results became the basis for the master plan. The prison was only closed in 2017, which made its reuse a very emotional undertaking. Some of the people imprisoned there during the Civil

Carles Baiges is in the back row in the middle; Eliseu Arrufat stands to his right.

Eliseu Arrufat and Carles Baiges of Lacol in conversation with Heide Wessely

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War were friends or family members of people in the neighbourhood. There were many proposals, from total demolition to 100 percent preservation. We formed working groups to discuss the various ­possibilities – demolition, green spaces, conservation, sports, you name it – and ended up with 23 main themes that were important to people. For the most part, everyone agreed; three or four needed further discussion. The city intervened in one case only: it pushed through a large sports facility, even though residents wanted a smaller one.

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But because no other sports facility exists in the area, this decision was made from the top. What were the community discussions like? What kinds of people came, and how did you organize these meetings? CB: Anyone could attend the open meetings. We also invited around 40 organizations working in historic preservation, sustainability, architecture, etc. In order to involve young people – that was very important to us – we made inquiries in schools. Every day there was a different

block of topics up for discussion. We set up tables in the rooms of the former prison where everyone could sit down and talk. On some days, we had around 100 people; nearly 300 people took part alto­ gether. How did you coordinate 300 people? Doesn’t that end in endless discussions? CB: With La Model, it wasn’t so difficult because the topics were very open and didn’t require going into much detail. When addressing ­specific construction tasks, the

“During the civil war, the ­townspeople had to manage things on their own for two years – that leaves its mark.”

­ rocess is often more complex. For p the cooperative housing we develop, the people involved usually have a similar mindset, which is a big advantage. Nevertheless, we still have to moderate the working groups so that no one strays too far from the topic. For example, if it’s about ­materials, the discussion needs to stick to that and not address colours as well. We ensured that everyone focused on one topic – only at the end were the results presented to the larger group. Nevertheless, there is certainly not always consensus; how do you reconcile different interests? EA: We have gained much experience in listening to different voices: individuals, the neighbourhood, politics, professional planners, and female colleagues. We are very open. On the other hand, setting boundaries in the process is vital. At what point are we no longer willing to negotiate? What do we find unacceptable? Sometimes we must take people aside and speak with them individually if they are unwilling to compromise. Group behaviour is fascinating because the roles often change when someone leaves the group. A new dynamic develops, and suddenly you’re moving forward again. What do you think of Decidim, the open-source platform for citizen participation, which was developed in Barcelona and launched in 2016?

Eliseu Arrufat and Carles Baiges of Lacol in conversation with Heide Wessely

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La Model was a penitentiary built in the early 20th century and was only closed in 2017. Community members gathered in

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the former prison wing to discuss the future use of the historic site.

CB: In principle, Decidim is great – numerous institutions, cities, and countries are now using it. In the field of architecture or urban planning, however, it’s a challenge to use because you can’t work with it visually. We do a lot of projects for the city, and they all must go through Decidim. To do this, we need to be able to upload plans, images, and graphics so that citizens can participate online. But that does not work well technically. Having discussions online without showing models or plans doesn’t work. As a tool, it is much better suited for transparency purposes or to track the progress of a project. That can be represented in numbers and percentages. What role does politics play in your work? EA: Our left-leaning government makes many things easier because it focuses more on social needs. Citizen participation, for example, is a good thing, but it is also important to have more social justice in urban planning. Climate change, which has been highly noticeable here in the last two summers, is accelerating how we think about things. But we have noticed that this change in thinking often does not consider social aspects. For example, we are refurbishing 1970s apartment blocks outside Barcelona in a very low-income area. Given today’s high energy costs, the buildings need to be more energy efficient. But the residents don’t trust the experts, and they don’t trust the government. They often don’t see the

need to change anything. The danger is that the climate debate will further deepen social divides. The wealthy are better positioned to demand and implement more environmentally sustainable measures in the city. It also doesn’t help that you need a college degree to apply for government funding for solar panels because the application process is so complicated. How do you see your city overall in terms of sustainability? CB: Barcelona is a highly dense city. In terms of sustainability, that can be considered a positive thing because less area is sealed overall. But there are also disadvantages, such as the lack of green spaces and poor air quality. The city is ambivalent in many ways. Superblocks, for example, return urban space to pedestrians, but without careful planning, they simply divert traffic to other streets. Architectural improvements often lead to gentrification. And while tourism draws money into the city, it drives up rents. Improving the city in a socially responsible way is a balancing act – we must confront this repeatedly in our work.

Eliseu Arrufat and Carles Baiges of Lacol in conversation with Heide Wessely

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p. 032 23 La  Borda p. 244 24 La  Balma p . 260

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Client: Sostre Cívic Structural design: Miguel Nevado Completion: 2017 Area: 2,348 m2 Use: Housing cooperative, guest apartment, retail shops

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Carrer Espronceda 131–135, Sant Martí 🌐 sostrecivic.coop #sostrecivic @sostrecivic

Lacol, La Boqueria

Progressive Timber Living La Balma Housing ­Cooperative

For decades, the property at the corner of Camí Antic de Valencia and Carrer d’Espronceda went undeveloped. It was only once the real estate bubble burst that it came to the city council’s attention and was awarded to the winner of Barcelona’s inaugural competition for housing cooperatives. To win the bid, the Sostre Cívic cooperative teamed up with architects from Lacol and La Boqueria. Together they developed a cost-effective, space-efficient building and use concept for the La Balma housing cooperative – with flexible floor plans, a guest apartment, neighbourhood shops, and a supporting structure made of solid timber. They also developed a resource-saving energy concept with a geothermal heat pump and wall heating using clay radiant

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heating panels. The architects used building information modelling (BIM) to optimize the cross-laminated timber (CLT) shell. They also involved the future residents in the participatory design process, working together on individual dwelling layouts at a series of workshops. According to personal preferences, the bedrooms are oriented to the east or west, facing either the covered access balconies or the opposite facade. The cubic structure confidently occupies the corner of the block and almost seems like a natural continuation of the adjacent school to the north. The ground-floor base is robustly designed with walls and supports in raw concrete, separated by shop windows along the street side. Access to the 20 dwellings and the ground-level common room, which features a community kitchen, is along a covered staircase, which is separated from the neighbouring park by metal grating. Incisions of varying widths and depths bring diversity and openness to the facades of the residential floors. On the first three floors, the access balconies serve as a buffer zone to the noisy Carrer d’Espronceda. Beginning on the fourth floor, the walkways were moved around the corner to the long side of the building on the west, with a view of the sun setting over the school. Not only do they provide access to the dwellings, they serve as a communication zone for residents and create an outdoor area in front of each unit. Windows on opposite sides of the units ensure natural cross-ventilation eliminating the need for mechanical cooling. From the ground-floor entrance area, the open staircase and elevator lead past common spaces for yoga and co-working, a guest apartment, and a communal bathroom with a bathtub for residents who find the shower in their own apartment insufficient. The largest common area is the roof terrace, which covers the entire building and can be retrofitted with shading roofs made of photovoltaic panels. This area compensates for the narrow strip of garden on the ground floor. Traditional facade elements in the form of bright red sunblinds lend the innovative apartment building not only local colour but also Mediterranean charm. They animate the building’s appearance, with some of the blinds partly rolled up, hanging vertically or draped at an angle over the balconies. fk

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In the context of public facilities such as hospitals, kindergartens, and schools, housing should also have a

public ­­character. Shop windows between the massive concrete pillars open up to passers-by.

24 La Balma Housing ­Cooperative Lacol, La Boqueria ○

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The floor plans at La Balma allow for various expansion options, such as a separately ­accessible bedroom from

the walkway. The one- to three-room apartments range in size from 48.50 to 73 m2.

24 La Balma Housing ­Cooperative Lacol, La Boqueria ○

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24 La Balma Housing ­Cooperative Lacol, La Boqueria ○

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Client: lnstituto Metropolitano de Carrer Baldiri Net i Figueres 5–7, Sant Boi ­Promoción de Suelo, Àrea Metropolitana de Llobregat de Barcelona Structural design: Manuel Arguijo Completion: 2019 Area: 12,500 m2 Use: Social/private housing, retail, shops, restaurant

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Estudio Herreros, MIM-A

Monument to Urban ­Living Caracol Residential Building

Caracol – meaning snail – is the name of this formidable apartment block in the northwest of Barcelona. Despite its lack of resemblance to a snail, the view through the large openings at the front of the building does have a similar effect to a snail shell by sparking our curiosity about its interior. Here, hidden elements peek through: a sizeable pink courtyard interspersed with greenery, lined with access balconies and meeting areas. The courtyard is the heart of the social life in this residential building, where neighbours meet on communal terraces and where everyone goes to access their dwellings. Because the development plan did not allow for balconies, the architects simply moved them inward and made maximum use of the property. Thanks to the inner

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courtyard, loggias, and angled roof surfaces, they managed to comply with the maximum allowable floor area. The building is also highly efficient: a central circulation core holds two elevators and a staircase leading to the 79 apartments on seven floors. This core divides the courtyard into two parts, which also makes its dimensions more pleasant. The entrance hall, which slices through the building along a north-south axis, also breaks up the large volume, which stands with confidence in the newly laid-out park with its sharp-angled green spaces. The city, as the property’s former owner, stipulated at the time of sale that 60 % of the units must be rented out as social housing. The remainder was offered on the open housing market. Open kitchens – a rarity in Barcelona – give the dwellings a spacious feel. Thanks to the double-sided layouts, windows on opposite sides of each apartment ensure bright and airy spaces. Both the subsidized and freely financed apartments are similarly outfitted, with only minor differences in the quality of the surfaces – the result of a conscious decision to downplay differences in the renters’ social status. It took ten years between winning the competition in 2009 and completing the building, with planning changes and the real estate crisis delaying construction. The clear, simple supporting structure was able to accommodate the redesign of 100 very small apartments into what are now 79 somewhat bigger units, with no changes to the circulation concept. The strict grid is distinguished on the facade by equally wide green bands of fibre cement panels. In between, sliding shutters made of yellow-painted slats and plaster surfaces in various shades of green create a cheerful outer appearance. Retail shops and a restaurant have taken up residence on the ground floor, enlivening the urban space outside the residential complex as well. Caracol now stands proudly at the intersection of a commercial district and a perimeter block development – a monument to urban living. hw

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25 Caracol Residential Building Estudio Herreros, MIM-A ○

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25 Caracol Residential Building Estudio Herreros, MIM-A ○

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25 Caracol Residential Building Estudio Herreros, MIM-A ○

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Client: Private Structural design: Bernuz-Fernández Arquitecte Completion: 2019 Area: 912 m2 + 177 m2 terrace Use: Residential

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Carrer de Pujades 251, Sant Martí

Lola Domènech, Lussi Studio

Home for Four Couples Apartment Building

Swiss architect Thomas Lussi teamed up with three couples, who are his friends, to design a new home for them all in Barcelona. In the Poblenou district, they found a 6 x 30 metre plot in Cerdà’s grid of block developments. Together with the Barcelona-based architect Lola Domènech, the group developed a building with five apartments. An architecture practice and co-working space share the commercial space on the ground floor. Common areas were a priority, with places for everyone to sit and eat together in the courtyard and a swimming pool for all on the rooftop terrace. The staircase on the long side of the building is flanked by ceramic lattices, which draw sunlight into the circulation zone and ensures constant, natural ventilation.

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Large wooden folding shutters can be closed to help keep temperatures cool inside the dwellings while animating the exterior. A terrace at both ends of each unit bridges the space between the glass fronts and the louvred shutters; this serves as a thermal buffer in addition to creating a private outdoor zone overlooking the street or courtyard. Tall glass sliding doors open to let cool air sweep through each apartment’s long hallway. A cabinet wall runs along its length, providing residents with ample storage space, becoming a built-in kitchen in the combined dining/living area. This room at the back is the largest in each unit and faces the courtyard. In designing the interiors, the architects sought to establish a dialogue between the various materials. Brick, poured concrete floors, untreated wood fixtures, and anthracite lime plaster walls harmonize for a sensual and relaxed atmosphere. A heating and cooling system with underfloor heating and an integrated air conditioning system powered by an air source heat pump ensures a pleasant indoor climate throughout the year. Along with measures such as the double outer walls and well insulated facades and roof, the apartment building meets passive house standards. hw

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26 Apartment Building Lola Domènech, Lussi Studio ○

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26 Apartment Building Lola Domènech, Lussi Studio ○

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Neither inside nor outside – folding shutters along the terrace provide ­privacy and shade. The wooden shutters

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animate the facade while allowing the Mediterranean breeze to sweep through the dwellings.

26 Apartment Building Lola Domènech, Lussi Studio ○

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Client: Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació, Ajuntament de Barcelona Structural design: Manuel Arguijo y Asociados Completion: 2020 Area: 6,020 m2 Use: Social housing for older adults, temporary apartments for mothers in need

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Carrer d’Alí Bei 100–102, Eixample

Arquitectura Produccions, Pau Vidal, Vivas Arquitectos

Active Living for Seniors Alí Bei Social Housing

The view from this social housing complex is spectacular – instead of a narrow backyard, residents of the seven-storey apartment building can look out onto a vast green sports field bordered by staggered rows of colourful seats. Behind it, a park provides even more greenery, and only then does the city begin again. Although the apartment building is located in the heart of the strictly gridded district of Eixample, much of this urban block is undeveloped. There are historical reasons for this: a railway line to the nearby Estació Nord station once ran along the space now occupied by the community soccer field. The area around that is also dedicated to sports. The two sides of the building, so different in terms of their setting, also determine the facades. Towards the street, the new residential

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complex closes the gap between two modernista townhouses. Balconies arranged in a checkerboard fashion above an exposed concrete plinth have a clear, rational effect and create a visual bridge between old and new. The checkerboard theme reappears on the other side of the building as well, but as recessed loggias. A double-height glass corner at the top right interrupts the grid, hinting at the special use inside, where a community room and laundry facility serve the senior residents. The building maintains just a little distance from its neighbours, with just one metre on the left and a little over three metres on the right. On this side, a lattice staircase, visible from the urban space, leads upwards, providing access and serving as an informal meeting place and viewing platform. Visual permeability plays a central role throughout the building. Even the large glass entrance doors provide a view that penetrates the building, reaching across a green courtyard and through the glazed common areas. The ground floor is divided into two sections, indicated by differently designed entrances: one made entirely of glass, the other fronted by a solid, protective grille. The latter provides access to ten temporary dwellings for mothers and their children; the different-sized units are distributed across two levels. A dedicated group kitchen, dining room, and recreation room for the women and children are on the ground floor. Unfortunately, those apartments were still empty as of November 2022 because of the slow-moving bureaucracy. In contrast, all 49 subsidized units for senior ­citizens are long since occupied. Ranging from about 40 to 45 m2 in size, they are designed for self-sufficient couples; a regular staff of social workers can provide some support. Residents also benefit from a number of common areas: a lounge on the ground floor and fifth floor, as well as a spacious roof terrace with fitness equipment and raised garden beds for growing herbs. From this vantage point, the seniors can relax on the comfortable lounge furniture while watching youth play sports on the field below. hw

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27 Alí Bei Social Housing Arquitectura Produccions, Pau Vidal, Vivas Arquitectos ○

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27 Alí Bei Social Housing Arquitectura Produccions, Pau Vidal, Vivas Arquitectos ○

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Senior residents can look out of their windows to watch football matches on the field below. More spectators can

gather on the roof terrace, which is open to all residents.

27 Alí Bei Social Housing Arquitectura Produccions, Pau Vidal, Vivas Arquitectos ○

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Coll-Leclerc enhanced the area north of the Barcelona Forum with their ­apartment building from 2008. Low-­

income residents live in the building’s 42 dwellings in this city-initiated social housing ­project.

Housing and Politics Jelena Prokopljević

BARCELONA Urban ­Architecture and Community Since 2010

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What remedies does Barcelona have to overcome its housing shortage? The history of housing policy in the Catalan capital has several chapters and just as many measures. Interventions to expand the city have inscribed themselves in the cityscape and can still be seen today. Where does the city stand now, and what conditions has it created to enable affordable housing and improve quality of life?

Efforts to overcome housing shortages have shaped contemporary Barcelona since the first industries settled in the old town and expanded to the surrounding municipalities. In 1860, the neighbourhood of Eixample expanded the city according to plans by Ildefons Cerdà, with the aim of providing healthy housing for all, with functional floor plans and large, open spaces. However, the open-block structure was soon densified through private construction, resulting in the loss of many of the development’s initial qualities. Workers flocking to the city were unable to afford the available housing, which drove efforts to resolve the issue in the 1920s. La Ley de las Casas Baratas (Cheap Houses Act) from that time served as the basis for the construction of subsidized housing estates around the periphery, such as Bon Pastor in the northeast, where hundreds of single-storey row homes were constructed, each with 40 m2 of living space and a small front garden. However, the new residential quarter did not provide for infrastructure such as retail shops, cafés, doctors’ offices, schools, community centres, or public spaces. Functionalism and social interaction The socialist government of the Second Republic (1931–1939) laid the foundations for extensive public investment in housing, healthcare, and education. One major innovation offered in response to this initiative was provided by the functionalist Group of Architects and Technicians for Promotion of Contemporary Architecture (GATCPAC), who designed a new housing typology incorporating public spaces and community services. Their Casa Bloc, designed in 1932, provided 207 social dwellings for working-class families. The S-shaped, five-floor complex frames two courtyards, with public facilities such as a library, kindergarten, and retail shops and duplex apartments accessed by covered walkways doubling as places of social interaction. 296 AT HOME IN THE CITY

Built in 1932, the Casa Bloc (bottom) by the GATCPAC architecture group, features 207 subsidized dwellings for

working families. Bon Pastor (top) consists of single-storey terraced homes with only 40 m2 of living space each.

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the government resumed After an extended economic downturn, widespread construction of public housing from the late 1950s into the 1970s. These new large-scale developments were located on the city’s outskirts or in neighbouring industrial towns. Thousands of affordable two- and three-room rental apartments were rented with the option of deferred ownership. Large slabs and high-rises transformed the urban skyline – but a lack of investment in public spaces, cultural buildings, and educational facilities led to the formation of vertical slums. This prompted the mobilization of the first grassroots neighbourhood associations.

Individual concepts are pursued instead of the usual top-down design that determines who uses which space and how. Communal ownership allows for some flexibility in dwelling sizes.

With the transition from dictatorship to democracy in the late 1970s, urban planning and construction responsibilities were transferred from the state government in Madrid to the municipalities. Subsidies for housing construction, however, continued to come from the capital – often in inadequate amounts. Municipal housing companies therefore took out considerable loans to build apartments for sale or rent at favourable rates. Selling was preferred because profits could be funnelled into much-needed public spaces and facilities. The action plan “Barcelona dels Barris” (Barcelona of Neighbourhoods) advocated an approach linking urban and architectural scales, public and private space, and long- and short-term projects. Many of the residential buildings completed around the 1992 Olympic Games exemplified this new approach. Demand regulates price The economic boom of the early 2000s caused the demand for housing to rise – and so did the prices. The growing immigrant population was particularly affected, with little access to housing on the free rental market. While low interest rates stoked the interest of private investors in the real estate market, public sector 298 AT HOME IN THE CITY

officials sought to provide affordable rental housing to low-income families, launching a series of public competitions calling for innovative solutions for communal spaces and infill housing. The apartment block by Coll-Leclerc near the Barcelona Forum and EMBT Architects’ senior housing at Santa Caterina market illustrate how housing policy can serve as a vehicle of social integration while improving urban neighbourhoods. During the economic crisis from 2008 to 2013, housing prices dropped between 16 percent (rental) and 35 percent (sales). Although interest rates on construction loans fell to a historic low, many people were denied credit because they had lost their jobs. Dwindling tax revenues led to a decline in government investments pushing public institutions, companies, and banks into debt, forcing many of them to restructure or foreclose while burdened with vacant dwellings and unpaid mortgages. Growing tourism and foreign investment in construction eventually fuelled an economic recovery, swinging back the pendulum; however, this led to gentrification in central urban areas. This development prompted the socialist-oriented city government to develop the “Pla pel Dret a l’Habitatge de Barcelona (Barcelona Right to Housing Plan) 2016–2025” through a series of participatory processes involving local communities and focusing on the right to housing for all. Right to housing The central aims of the Right to Housing Plan are to expand affordable housing, improve the quality of existing stock, ensuring the proper use of rental properties, and facilitating access to those in need of housing. The Barcelona Social Housing Council (Consell de l’Habitatge Social de Barcelona) and the Municipal Institute of Housing and Rehabilitation (Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona) manage a network of offices in every city district to deal with housing issues. The focus is no longer limited to new construction but encompasses the renovation and repair of existing housing stock. About 35 percent of Barcelona’s building stock pre-dates 1950, while another 45 percent was built between 1960 and 1990. Energy efficiency is also being addressed by the urban revitalization policy, with new mechanisms being implemented to subsidize the improvement of building envelopes, especially through thermal and acoustic insulation and solar energy. In addition, some of the vacant buildings, often owned by banks, will be converted for social uses. There is economic assistance to help needy families pay their rent, along with mediation and counselling services to prevent evictions. Housing and Politics Jelena Prokopljević

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Yet despite city regulations requiring 30 percent of newly built housing to be made available as publicly subsidized rentals, only a small part of this quota is being fulfilled, and the shortfalls continue to be noticeable. According to a study by the Arrels Foundation, more than 5,000 people in Barcelona do not have permanent residence, and about 1,200 people are homeless. The right to quality housing, as enshrined in Article 47 of the Spanish Constitution, is not being met. To do so would require closer, ongoing cooperation between central and local administrations, which is still lacking in efficiency. Recently, an alternative model has emerged to alleviate the housing shortage: housing cooperatives. Barcelona’s first cooperative projects date back to the 1920s. They drew more attention during the housing shortage of the 1970s by providing more equitable and affordable access to housing through collective investment in construction. Similar principles were pursued at the famous Walden 7 apartment

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Ricardo Bofill’s Walden 7, completed in 1975, offers a unique take on coop­ erative living. Featuring 446 units and

t­ owers, courtyards, bridges, and planters, the striking apartment building is full of symbolism.

building by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA), which gave future residents an opportunity to be part of the design process. Walden 7 is based on 30 m2 modules that can be combined to create apartments of up to 120 m2 on one or two levels. Cooperative ownership and flexibility Today’s housing cooperatives are designed with their residents’ uses in mind and have been removed from the speculative housing market. Individual concepts are pursued instead of the usual top-down design that determines who uses which space and how. Communal ownership allows for some flexibility in dwelling sizes by including intermediate spaces between the public and private. The cooperative projects La Borda (p. 244) and La Balma (p. 260) by the Lacol architecture cooperative have pursued innovation not only in the design of individual dwellings but also in the organization of communal and flexible spaces. The first cooperative housing project based on a 75-year public land lease was developed through a participatory process led by Sostre Cívic, an umbrella organization supporting independent housing cooperatives. La Xarxaire is located in the neighbourhood of Barceloneta, close to the beach and the city centre, where the proliferation of tourist accommodations is driving up prices. La Mar D’Arquitectes transformed a 19th-century building into a multifamily residence. Compact apartments are extended by communal spaces on the ground floor and roof, where residents can sunbathe, work, play with their children, or simply meet. Barcelona’s current left-leaning administration strongly supports the new grassroots initiatives that are creating affordable, sustainable, and permanent housing solutions in the city. If implemented on a larger scale, they could replace the ubiquitous real estate speculation with a more democratic model for housing and the city.

Housing and Politics Jelena Prokopljević

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Client: lnstituto Metropolitano de Avenida República Argentina 21, Cornellà ­Promoción de Suelo, Àrea Metropolitana de Llobregat de Barcelona Structural design: Bernúz Fernández Arquitectes Landscape architecture: AB Pasatgistes Completion: 2020 Area: 2,137 m2 Use: Social housing

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Peris+Toral Arquitectes

Living in Squares 85 Subsidized Apartments

Cornellà de Llobregat is a low-income suburb with much of its housing run-down and in disrepair. But Peris+Toral have shown that low-cost social housing can also be high-quality, sustainable, and innovative. A quick glance at the floor plans makes their unconventional concept clear: each floor is divided into squares of equal size, each with an edge length of 3.60 metres. But what may seem like a strict grid on paper has a highly differentiated effect as a three-dimensional space. Most of the dwellings consist of six square modules; the ­corner units are slightly larger or smaller. The latter are entered through a circulation square directly connected to the staircase cores. The other apartments are accessed along covered walkways that line the courtyard. The walkway leads to a lockable gate and a private balcony in front

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of each apartment, which serves as both an entrance area and a buffer zone. The rest of the rooms are clustered around a central kitchen. Their use has been left ambiguous, enabling residents to decide for themselves where they will live, work, and sleep. Large openings with sliding doors connect the rooms for maximum flexibility. The building concept fills as many spaces as possible with multiple uses and eliminates hallways inside the dwellings, achieving a spaciousness that is exceptional in social housing in Spain, which permits bedrooms to have a minimum size of only 6 m2. All of the dwellings receive natural light and fresh air from two sides, making air conditioning systems unnecessary thanks to cross-ventilation. Steel grating was mounted along the balustrades for shade, coated silver on the outside to reflect the sun, and anthracite on the inside for a sense of transparency. Integrated wooden sunblinds, which are common in Barcelona apartment buildings, can be lowered and raised as needed, allowing a cooling breeze to sweep along the facade behind them. In addition to the climate concept, attention was given to sustainability in terms of the supporting structure, which is made from timber sourced from the Basque Country. It was designed so that the cross-sections of the supports would be as small as possible, reducing costs. The balustrades were also economically conceived; the steel grating was canted several times for stability, eliminating the need for expensive welding. Spatial layering is a central theme throughout the structure, with flowing transitions between the street space, portico, and inner courtyard. The permeability between public and private areas is also evident when seen from the outside. The U-shaped base provides space for retail shops, while plans are underway to establish a movie theatre in the basement, which residents demanded should replace the old one that previously occupied the site. However, it remains to be seen when funding will become available to revive the municipality-run cinema. hw

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28 85 Subsidized Apartments Peris+Toral Arquitectes ○

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28 85 Subsidized Apartments Peris+Toral Arquitectes ○

of dwelling design provides various ­ egrees of privacy and communality d as needed.

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28 85 Subsidized Apartments Peris+Toral Arquitectes ○

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Client: Universitat Politècnica de ­Catalunya, CompactHabit, Constructora d’Aro Structural design: DSM arquitectes Completion: 2015 Area: 3,101 m2 Use: Residential

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Carrer de Pere Serra 1, Sant Cugat del Vallès 🌐 unihabit.com/en/ university-residence-sant-cugat @unihabit #unihabit

dataAE, Harquitectes

Modular Living 57 Student Dwellings

The nationally renowned architecture school, Escola Tècnica Superior d’Architectura del Vallès (ETSAV), is located in Sant Cugat del Vallès, about 10 km northwest of Barcelona. The ETSAV student dormitory is located between the university building and the railroad line, nestled in a topography of gentle hills. The housing complex consists of two opposing two-storey wings, with access from the central courtyard. This elongated, landscaped space serves as a communal area and meeting space for students. Because of its location on a hillside, neither floor requires elevators but offers barrier-free accessibility. The design of the new dormitory is the result of a competition organized by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). The competition stipulated the use of a Spanish manufacturer’s precast concrete

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modular system that had been selected in a previous competitive process. A further requirement was compliance with the Swiss Minergie standard, which at the time of construction corresponded to a maximum heating requirement of 38 kWh/m2a. The winning team of DataAE and Harquitectes, two regional architecture firms, decided to modify the open-ended concrete boxes. First, the architects deviated from the standard module size and chose dimensions of 5 x 11.2 metres – the maximum dimensions for truck transport. Second, they dispensed with the manufacturer’s original wall and floor coverings, preferring the unfinished surfaces. These modifications significantly reduced the cost of materials, freeing up the budget for improved insulation and wooden windows. The raw appearance also had architectural reasons: the exposed concrete surfaces of the walls, ceilings, and floors, together with the black-coated plywood in the bathrooms and kitchens, work together to create a neutral backdrop, enabling students to appropriate the spaces and design the interiors according to their own ideas. Each dwelling measures around 40 m2 and is occupied by one or two people. Except for the bathroom and open-shelved kitchenette, which are installed back-to-back in a fixed location, the apartment interiors can be furnished freely. The advantages of the modular design not only include low production costs, a short construction time of eight months, and easy disassembly. Most of the building components can be reused, and even the facades were assembled in a dry-build system for circularity. While the cladding of the enclosed walkways takes up the coated plywood of the interiors, the more weather-exposed exterior walls are clad in robust galvanized sheet. Climbing plants will grow along steel cable mesh across the exterior, providing a better microclimate and interrupting the repetitive perforated facade with patches of green. jl

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AT HOME IN THE CITY

Site plan Scale 1:4000

1 Student ­dormitory 2 ETSAV School of Architecture 2

1

29 57 Student Dwellings dataAE, Harquitectes ○

313

aa

bb

3 Laundry 4 Utility room

Sections, floor plans Scale 1:750

5 Ground-floor entrance 6 Reception 7 Dwelling unit

8

9

8 Upper-level ­entrance 9 TV lounge

7

8 7 7

9

7

First floor

4

5

b

7 6

a

3

4

5

3

a

b 7 7

65

Ground floor

314 AT HOME IN THE CITY

a

3

b

3

a

29 57 Student Dwellings dataAE, Harquitectes ○

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Client: Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació, Ajuntament de Barcelona Structural design: Boma, Robert Brufau Completion: 2011 Area: 8,391 m2 Use: Social housing for older adults

30

Via Favència 348, Nou Barris

Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons, Ricard Galiana

Tower of Good Care Torre Juliá Senior Residence

At Torre Júlia, white metal bands are enlivened by patches of bright ­yellow and green. This residential high-rise for senior citizens attracts attention not only by its colour scheme but also its height. With 17 floors, it towers above the skyline and draws looks from afar. From the adjacent ring road, it has the effect of an artfully designed landmark. The colours have a purpose: they are intended to make it easier to ­navigate the tower’s various sections. The three residential communities are colour-coded: yellow, light green, or dark green, spread over four or five floors. Each section includes a laundry room and a double-height common room, which is also visible in the facade with its large window. The floor plan concept is pragmatic in design, with six apartments on the standard floors on either side of a short, naturally lit hallway. All units have two rooms so that couples can live together.

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Electronic fire doors at both ends of the corridors are always open, providing views of the city. Combined with the ventilation sashes next to the apartment doors, they allow cross ventilation into the apartments. To avoid the presence of dark indoor corridors, the stairs are located on the outside along the facade. The open staircase area doubles as a viewing platform on the different levels, fostering encounters and communication and encouraging more movement in everyday life. Besides the colour-coded areas residential groups, a specially developed visual guidance system also aids orientation in the building, with symbols in the elevators indicating the floors and functional zones. To foster a more personal atmosphere, abstract silhouettes of ­children and older adults adorn walls throughout the building, while wallpaper patterned in a retro aesthetic is meant to convey familiarity in the common areas. A sizeable community room is available to all residents on the ground  floor, along with the generous roof terrace which has become a popular outdoor meeting place with marvellous views across the city. The tiny park in front of the building, on the other hand, is less spectacular – although even here, older residents enjoy the sun and listen to the shrill whistles and cheers from the adjacent soccer field – though sometimes the joyful shouts are lost in the traffic noise on the ring road below. A staircase and a steep ramp, which is rather unsuitable for people with walkers, lead down from the park to a square facing away from the road, where playground equipment is intended to attract children and allow young and old to meet. A social and intergenerational mix is also encouraged by communal areas on the ground floor, which people from the neighbourhood are invited to use. hw

318 AT HOME IN THE CITY

Site plan Scale 1:5000

1 Torre Júlia 2 Nursing home 3 Sports centre/ swimming pool

3 2 1

30 Torre Juliá Senior Residence Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons, Ricard Galiana ○

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Section, floor plans Scale 1:500

4 Common area in base (also external use) 5 Reception

6 Multipurpose room 7 Management 8 Apartment unit

9 Common room for housing ­section 10 Laundry

12 a

a

11 Drying room 12 Utility room 13 Roof terrace

13

12

7

Roof top 5 6 8 8

10 11

Ground floor

Eighth floor

8

8 9 4

Seventh floor

8

Base floor

320 AT HOME IN THE CITY

Second floor

Colour-coded floors serve as a guidance number along with silhouette figures system for the senior residents at Torre scattered throughout the building Juliá. Large ­lettering identifying the floor ­provide additional orientation.

aa

30 Torre Juliá Senior Residence Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons, Ricard Galiana ○

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322 AT HOME IN THE CITY

30 Torre Juliá Senior Residence Pau Vidal, Sergi Pons, Ricard Galiana ○

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Appendix

325

Architects AIA Activitats Arquitectòniques AFF Architekten

Plaça de Sant Pere 3 08003 Barcelona

🌐 aia.cat @aia.activitats.instal.lacions

8 ○

Arquitectura Anna Noguera

Carrer d’Aragó 224, 3º 1ª 08011 Barcelona

🌐 annanoguera.com @anna.noguera.arquitectura

3 ○

Arquitectura Produccions

Carrer de Santiago Rusiñol 9, baixos 08050 Barcelona

🌐 aproduccions.com @arquitecturaproduccions

27 ○

b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos

Carrer de Calvet 55 08021 Barcelona

🌐 b720.com @b720arquitectos

1 ○ 16 ○

BAAS Arquitectura

Montserrat de Casanovas 105 08032 Barcelona

🌐 baas.cat @baasarquitectura

12 ○

Barceló Balanzó Arquitectes

Carrer del Camp 64 08022 Barcelona

🌐 bbarquitectes.com @bb_arquitectes

8 ○

Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects

Passatge de la Pau 10, bis pral. 08002 Barcelona

🌐 mirallestagliabue.com @embtarchitects

4 ○

dataAE

Carrer de Bailèn 28, 2º 1ª 08010 Barcelona

🌐 dataae.com

19 ○ 29 ○

Espinet / Ubach

Carrer del Camp 61, 1º 1ª 08022 Barcelona

🌐 espinet-ubach.com @espinetubach

18 ○

Estudio Herreros

Calle de Boix y Morer 6, 8º 28003 Madrid

🌐 estudioherreros.com @estudioherreros

25 ○

Eulia Arkitektura

Ulia 252 20013 Donostia-San Sebastian

🌐 eulia.eu @euliaarkitektura

21 ○

Flores & Prats Arquitectes

Carrer de Trafalgar 12, 3º 1ª 08010 Barcelona

🌐 floresprats.com @floresyprats

11 ○

Gustau Gili Galfetti

Carrer Princesa 16, 2°1 08003 Barcelona

🌐 gustaugili.com @gustaugiligalfetti

8 ○

Harquitectes

Carrer de Montserrat 22, 2º 2ª 08201 Sabadell

🌐 harquitectes.com @harquitectes

haz arquitectura

Carrer del Robí 33, bajos 1 08024 Barcelona

🌐 hazarquitectura.com @hazarquitectura_barcelona

JAAS

Passeig de Sant Joan 17–19, 2º 1ª 08010 Barcelona

🌐 jaas.cat @jaas_architects

14 ○

Javier Fernandez

Carrer Sant Emili 11 08960 Sant Just Desvern

🌐 j2j.es @j2jarchitects

3 ○

La Boqueria

Carrer de la Petxina 4, 1º 1ª 08001 Barcelona

🌐 laboqueria.net @laboqueriataller

24 ○

Lacol

Riera d’Escuder 38, 2º 1ª 08028 Barcelona

🌐 lacol.coop @lacolarq

2 ○ 23 ○ 24 ○

326

5 ○ 6 ○ 17 ○ 19 ○ 29 ○ 9 ○

Lola Domènech

Ronda de Sant Pere 58, 3 3a 08010 Barcelona

🌐 loladomenech.com @loladomenech_arqt

26 ○

Lussi Studio

Carrer de Pujades 251, local 08005 Barcelona

🌐 lussistudio.com @lussistudio

26 ○

MIM-A

Carrer del Camp 61, 4º 4ª 08022 Barcelona

🌐 mim-a.com

25 ○

Oliveras Boix Arquitectes

Carrer d’Ausiàs Marc 39, 2º B 08010 Barcelona

🌐 oliverasboix.com

13 ○

Pau Vidal

Carrer de Pere IV 29–35, 3º 5ª 08018 Barcelona

🌐 pauvidal.eu

27 ○ 30 ○

Peris+Toral Arquitectes

Carrer de Sant Antoni Abat 6, 2º 1ª 08001 Barcelona

🌐 peristoral.com

28 ○

Ricard Galiana – RGN Arquitectes

Carrer de Francisco Giner 22, local 2 08012 Barcelona

🌐 ricardgaliana.com @rgnarchitects

30 ○

Ricard Mercadé / Aurora Fernández arquitectes

Carrer de Ramon Turró ­100–104, 6º 6a 08005 Barcelona

🌐 mercadefernandez.com @mercadefernandez

15 ○

Roldán + Berengué

Carrer de Girona 37, 2ª 08010 Barcelona

🌐 roldanberengue.com @roldan.berengue

Sergi Godia Arquitecte

Carrer del Dr. Fleming 4, 12º 1ª 08017 Barcelona

🌐 sergigodia.net

sergi pons studio

Carrer del Penedés 1, bajos 08012 Barcelona

🌐 sergipons-studio.com

22 ○ 7 ○ 30 ○

Straddle3

Carrer Riereta 32, 1º 3ª 08001 Barcelona

🌐 straddle3.net @straddle3

21 ○

SUMO Arquitectes

Carrer d’Ausiàs Marc 26, 5º 52 08010 Barcelona

🌐 sumo-arquitectes.com @sumoarquitectes

20 ○

Vivas Arquitectos

Carrer de Ramón Turró ­100–104, 4º 8ª 08005 Barcelona

🌐 vivasarquitectos.com @vivasarquitectos

27 ○

WMA – Willy Müller Architects

Ronda de Sant Pere 58, 2B 08010 Barcelona

🌐 willymullerarchitects.com

10 ○

Yaiza Terré

Carrer de l’Alzina 21 08024 Barcelona

🌐 yaizaterre.com @yaizaterre

21 ○

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Imprint & Image Credits Editors Authors

Interviews Project management Editorial team Copy editing/proofreading Graphic design Architectural drawings Translation Production and DTP Reproduction Printing and binding Paper

Heide Wessely, Sandra Hofmeister Sabine Drey (sd), Sandra Hofmeister, Rafael Goméz-Moriana (rgm), Frank Kaltenbach (fk), Lorenzo Kárász, Julia Liese (jl), Jelena Prokopljević, Heide Wessely (hw), Barbara Zettel (bz) Josep Ricart Ulldemolins, Anna Ramos, Carles Baiges & Eliseu Arrufat Heide Wessely Valerie D’Avis Sandra Leitte, Katrin Pollems-Braunfels strobo B M (Matthias Friederich, Luis Schneider, Julian von Klier) Lisa Hurler, Barbara Kissinger Alisa Kotmair Roswitha Siegler Ludwig Media, AT–Zell am See Schleunungdruck GmbH, Markt Heidenfeld Munken Print White, 90 g/m2, vol. 1.8 cm3/g

© 2023, erste Auflage DETAIL Business Information GmbH, München, detail.de ISBN 978-3-95553-607-7 (Print) ISBN 978-3-95553-608-4 (E-Book) This book is printed on FSC certified paper, meaning it was responsibly sourced from certified forests, which are managed with respect for the environment and for the people who live and work in them, recycled sources, or other controlled sources. This work is protected by copyright. The rights conferred thereby, in particular those of translation, reprint, lecture, extraction of illustrations and drawings, microfilming or reproduction by other means and storage in data processing systems are reserved. The rights to translation, printing, presentation, extraction of illustrations and drawings, microfilming or reproduction in other ways and storage in data processing systems are reserved, even if only excerpts are used. Reproduction of this work or parts thereof, even in individual cases, is only permitted within the limits of the statutory provisions of the Copyright Act as amended. It is ­generally subject to remuneration. Infringements are subject to the penal provisions of copyright law. The contents of this book have been researched and compiled to the best of our knowledge and belief and with the utmost care. No responsibility is taken for the completeness and correctness of the contributions. No legal claims can be derived from the contents of this book. Image Credits: Ajuntament de Barcelona, pp. 40, 258 Ajuntament de Barcelona/ Bayer, Edu, p. 105 Ajuntament de Barcelona/ TAVISA, pp. 84, 106, 109 Ajuntament de Barcelona/ Zambrano, Vincente, p. 44 Akazawa, Baku, pp. 32, 35, 37, 247 top Alamy Stock Photo, p. 12 Author unknown/historical picture, p. 176 Bujedo Aguirre, Iñigo, pp. 228– 229, 300 Cardelús, David, pp. 174, 177, 178 top, 178 bottom, 180–181 Comissió d’Activitats de Can Batlló, p. 160 Del Río Bani, p. 44 Duch, Enrich, pp. 46, 49 top, 49 bottom, 50, 51, 52–53 Estévez Olaizola, Aitor, pp. 216, 219 top, 219 bottom, 220 top, 220 bottom ETSAV–Uva, pp. 268–269 Fons Quaderns ­d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme/Arxiu Històric del COAC, p. 297 García–Valdecantos, Álvaro, pp. 35, 36, 38–39, 248, 256

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García, Jordi – Fundació Mies van der Rohe, p. 200 García, Simón, pp. 94, 97, 100–101, 126–127, 156, 182, 185, 187 top, 187 bottom Gómez Cuberes, Oriol, p. 260 Gómez-Moriana Rafael p. 106 bottom Goula, Adriá, pp. 60, 63, 64 top, 64 bottom, 66, 67, 74, 77, 78–79, 80, 82, 83, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92–93, 110, 113, 114, 115, 132, 135, 136 top, 136 bottom, 138, 139 top, 139 bottom, 140, 142, 143, 144 top, 144 bottom, 146, 147, 166, 168, 169, 170, 172, 173, 188, 193 top, 193 bottom, 194–195, 208, 211, 212 top, 212 bottom, 213, 214, 230, 233, 234 top left, 234 top right, 234 bottom left, 234 bottom right, 278, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 310, 313 top, 313 bottom, 315 top, 315 bottom, 316, 319, 321 top, 321 bottom Guerra, Fernando, p. 159 Harquitectes, pp. 68, 72, 76, 190, 191 Hevia, José, pp. 97, 98, 99, 130–131, 148, 151, 152, 153 top, 153 bottom, 154–155, 162, 224–225, 270, 273, 276,

277, 286, 289, 291, 292–293, 294, 302, 305, 307 top, 307 ­bottom, 308, 309 Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona, pp. 250–251 Lacol – Arquitectura cooperativa, pp. 34, 244, 247 bottom, 252, 255 Lau, Benjamin, p. 102 Loureiro, Ricardo, pp. 116, 120 Malagamba, Duccio, pp. 20– 21, 24, 27, 28, 30–31, 54, 57, 58, 59, 106 Mas, Anna, p. 196 Metropoli, Bon Pastor, p. 297 Miralles, Lluc, p. 248 bottom Nagy, Sebastien, pp. 18–19 Pegenaute, Pedro, pp. 202, 205, 206 Pericas, Anna, Escofet, pp. 22–23 Roldán Berengué arqts., p. 242 Schuhmacher, Raoul, p. 11 Segura, Pepo – Fundació Mies van der Rohe, pp. 128–129 Somorrostro. Crónica visual de un barrio olvidado, p. 105 Surroka, Jordi + del Río, Gael, pp. 236, 239, 241, 243 Surroka, Jordi, pp. 118, 119, 120 Suzuki, Hisao, pp. 124–125

TerraMetrics, Kartendaten, pp. 6, 16, 122, 222 Viladoms, Pol, pp. 226–227 Villalba, Milena, pp. 263, 264 top, 264 bottom, 267 top, 267 bottom Wessely, Heide, p. 164 Xavier Basiana, Jaume ­Orpinell. Can Batlló, 1997–1998 Fotografía a las sales de plata e impresión sobre papel 85 x 65 cm. Colección ­MACBA. Consorcio MACBA., p. 160 The publisher would like to ­ xpress its sincere gratitude e to all those who have assisted in the production of this book, be it through providing photos, granting permission to ­reproduce their documents, or providing other information. All the drawings were specially produced for this publica­ tion. In some cases, we were unable to establish copyright ownership; however, copyright is assured. Please notify us accordingly in such instances.