office/

institutional

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cultural

public

housing

health sportive/

industrial

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housing

awards (projects)

press release (projects)

awards (other)

press release cv

PROJECT 14 RESIDENTIAL UNITS IN VALLCARCA with Ramon Sanabria and Francisco Mangado

Location Av Vallcarca/calle Cambrils 86-92, Barcelona.

Programme 14 residential units

Date Sep 2009-May 2010 (course ETSAB), Jan-May 2011(proj)

Prop. Developer Municipal Housing Board

Consultants I-MAT (structures), JSS (installations)

Construction Firm

Area (m2) 1.500 m2

Budget (€) 1.613.150 € PEC with 8% iva

This investigation is the result of 2 workshops held at the Barcelona School of architecture during the 2009-10

academic year through an agreement between the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, the ETSAB and the Barcelona

Municipal Board of Housing and were conducted by Ignacio Paricio, Patxi Mangado, Ramon Sanabria and Jaime

Coll. In the Vallcarca district of Barcelona, 3 dwellings units were to be constructed from the recycled material

exhibited during the Barcelona Construmat Fair, “Casa Barcelona” as part of a social housing block. The block was

developed in the first workshop and the interior of the dwellings during the second workshop. The building of 15

homes will be built with prefabricated I-Mat system of concrete panels of 4 cm thick developed by the ITEC.

(Catalan institute of construction)

Thinking about the assembly-disassembly of the pavilion we began to develop a prototype for a house with no

walls, where dismountable furniture would be larger than normal and enclose and qualify the space. The goal is to

obtain flexible and interchangeable floor spaces for the social housing. We defined a catalogue "E" of furniture

pieces, parts that are packed in a volume of 100x195x250 cms we call "Living Furniture." The piece goes from floor

to ceiling and can unfold by rotation, sliding, or folding down on the pavement of the house, thus configurating the

uses (by areas of influence) of the various living spaces.

ground floor

PROJECT 37 RESIDENTIAL UNITS IN PAU DE CARABANCHEL (IX Spanish Architecture Biennial AWARDS)

Location Av euro-carrer Croat, Carabanchel, Madrid

Programme 37 residential units, parking

Date Sep 2009-Dec 2010 (project), (construction)

Prop. Developer EMVS

Consultants BOMA (structures), AJ (installations), (Budget)

Construction Firm

Area (m2) 4.506 m2

Budget (€) 3.047.140 € PEC with 7% iva

El edificio forma parte de una parcela que completa una manzana de bloque abierto. Su posición es

obligada respecto a la Avenida del Euro y Calle del Croat, para mantener la separación mínima con el

edificio vecino.

La forma en planta resultante del posicionamiento obligatorio, produce un bloque con una proporción

muy rectangular de 45x20 metros, que permite organizar las viviendas en anillo, alrededor de un patio

que es grande para que se cubra o para que se convierta en un pasillo de distribución interior y es

pequeño para que sea considerado patio de manzana. Nos interesa esta ambigüedad del bloque, su

tamaño y proporción que permiten una doble lectura entre ser una pequeña manzana o un bloque

aislado. Por su situación también ambigua, en una manzana que a la vez forma parte de otra mayor y

que a pesar de ser bloque abierto, la alineación de fachadas a las calles principales produce una

configuración de manzana clásica pero permeable.

El desarrollo de las unidades de viviendas a partir de un modulo de 5,56x5,56 metros en el que el

crecimiento de la vivienda según el numero de habitaciones se produce añadiendo módulos, permite

organizar el bloque en anillo, añadiendo el numero de viviendas necesario y combinando las tipologías

con libertad. El volumen y las fachadas reflejaran esta combinación de tipos

La volumetría refleja en primer lugar esta flexibilidad en la combinación de los tipos, con adiciones y

sustracciones de los módulos que dejan vacíos por los que se escapan las vistas desde las pasarelas

del interior hacia la meseta al sur de la M40.

También es el resultado de sustraer en sección para alcanzar la altura de 7 plantas mas ático a la

avenida del euro y una altura mucho menor de 3 plantas al sur, a la calle del Cuarto, que ofrece la

posibilidad de que el sol atraviese el patio interior y llegue al acceso por la fachada norte, en la

avenida del Euro. Un patio adicional en el bloque más alto, permite que las viviendas con fachada

principal a norte tengan sol por la fachada interior.

El corte que se produce en planta 3ª, crea una terraza-belvedere comunitario y le da una escala

menos rotunda al bloque desde el interior de la manzana. A la avenida del Euro, las 8 plantas de las

cuales 6 “flotan” sobre un porche a diferentes alturas que crea un espacio publico que nos recuerda al

Museo de Arte de Sao Paulo, de Lina Bo Bardi le dan la rotundidad requerida a nuestro bloque, que no

puede competir con el tamaño de las fachadas longitudinales vecinas.

PROJECT 17 RESIDENTIAL UNITS IN VIC Location Riera Major-Botanic Micó , Serra de Sanferm, Vic

Programme 18 residential units, parking

Date Jan 2009- Sep 2009 (project), Oct 2010- (construction)

Prop. Developer Public Housing Foundation of Catalonia

Consultants BOMA (structures), AJ (installations), (budget), AIGUASOL

(energetic certification)

Construction Firm TEYCO

Area (m2)

Budget (€) 1.707.978 € PEC with 8% iva

The site consists of 2 plots of land of the Serra de Sanferm neighbourhood located on the southern outskirts of the

city of Vic, on the edge of agricultural land. Both plots slope to the south and east and therefore have good

orientations and distant views towards the Montseny and the agricultural land. A public facility building is

programmed for construction on the parcel south.

The block is a specific volume for 17 dwellings, with 17 parking spaces at the ground floor level and municipal

offices located on the second floor with 5 dwellings. The dwellings on the 3rd floor are organized in duplexes,

taking advantage of the roof’s geometry for a 3rd bedroom. This mezzanine is more playful, a small 1 bedroom-

apartment, equipped with bathroom and A sunbathing terrace connected with the lower floor through a double

height that structures the voids that compress and decompress the space and provide these smalls apartments

with a single-family house configuration with its pitched roofs revealed on the inside.

ACCESS. All accesses, stairs and hallway are naturally lit by a 4x4-meters courtyard, protected from the cold in

winter and cooled in summer by the natural vertical air movement produced by additional individual 1.80 x1, 80m2

courtyards that transform the interior corridor into catwalks suspended between green spaces and courtyards.

HOUSING.

The units are developed according to the following principle: cross ventilation through the 4x4 courtyard (the

living-dining-kitchen space runs north-south), open space, simplicity of construction, versatility in use (the small

bedroom can become an extension of the living room) and the maximum incorporation of outdoor spaces

(balconies and courtyards at levels 1 and 2 terraces at the duplex’s).

Space is gained by projecting balconies. We offer the highest possible outdoor surface ratio (10% of net interior

area) with a large outdoor balcony (1.5 x 3, 0 m.) facing south and the Montseny and 1 large interior courtyard for

service (washing and drying protected from views, pantry and different conducts and risers.).

duplex model

PROJECT VILLA ORDOS, INNNER MONGOLIA, CHINA Location Kaokaoshina New District, Ordos, China

Programme House

Date Jan -June 2008 (project)

Prop. Developer Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd.

Ai Wei Wei – Herzog & de Meuron (commissioners)

Consultants BOMA (structure), Jaume Avellaneda (constr), AJ (instal,

Fabian Asuncion (model), CADRG (China Architecture

Design & Research Group)

Construction Firm

Area (m2) 1264 m2

Budget (€) 250.000 $ Budget

The parcel 19 has some unique features: It is one of the biggest parcel, with more sides, hence with more

neighbours, in one of the highest place and it has the least street façade (20 metres in a 178 metres perimetre). So

the building could avoid hierarchy (main and rear façade), all sides have good views and the relationship with

neighbours is complex.

The volume of the house is deformed to respond to climate and weather conditions. (winter -15º C, summer

+40ºC), diminishing the northern facade exposure and increasing the southern facade. Deformations are also

applied to its section: Diminishing the height of the house towards the northwest for the strong wind and increasing

it towards the centre, adopting an aerodynamic profile similar to the smooth hills of the Ordos landscape. The roof

constitutes an artificial landscape, defined by a singular topography acting as a wind-barrier to an exterior solarium

area connected to the interior swimming pool and lounge-mezzanine.

Almost all the different parts of the program of the house are covered by a tent-like structure under one single roof.

Its profile reminds that of the surrounding dunes of the Mongolian desert as if carved by the same wind. The

variation in height of the roof makes each space singular and converts the interior into a large space. The whole

treatment of the house is playful and organized following a structure of 5-meter wide parallel strips of program,

interchangeable and permeable. The program fills strategically the strips eliminating the necessity for corridors

through free trajectories through polyvalent spaces.

Each space has its own nature and volume and is defined by 4 posts marking a perimeter. Furthermore each

space is separated from the next by a strip of 30+10+30 cms allowing for equipment, shelves, storage and sliding

doors and acting as a threshold.

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PROJECT SAINT GREGORI SCHOOL RENOVATION AND EXTENSION Location Carles Riba 11-15 – 08035 Barcelona

Programme Elementary and Primary Classrooms. Elementary Music

School

Date Sep 2007-July 2008 (project), May 2009-May 2011

(construction)

Prop. Developer Saint Gregori Foundation

Consultants Bis architects (structures), AJ Engineers, Forteza-Carbonell

(budget), ADS ( energetic cert.), STATIC (street)

Construction Firm ACME-ACIEROID

Area (m2) 2.855 m2 schools, 1.007 m2 parking

3.862 m2 total

Budget (€) 5.734.584 € Final work budget without iva

AWARDS

- Qualification: energetic rating “A” -Finalist Endesa Award to the most sustainable property

development BMP’09-Bcn Meeting Point

-Selected FAD Awards 2011

-Finalist V Architecture Awards Enor 2011

SANT GREGORI SCHOOL REMODELLING AND EXTENSION

The comission focussed on the reform, improvement and extension of the existing facilites from 1972. The

extention will include, an underground parking, 6 kindergarden classrooms, 6 additional primary level classrooms

and a new elementary school of music with its 300 seats auditorium which will also be a gymnasium for the entire

school.

The urban parameters were as follow: Compulsory setback on Carles Riba Street, single intervention not to be

fragmented, minimum footprint on the natural reminder of the plot, upper portion of the hillside protected

We also added our own parameter that the intervention should be of minimum appearance occupying holes,

emptying and filling landfills, sustituing terraced landfills with program creating polivalent spaces and using the

resulting rooftops as playgrounds.

The building was rated A-level energywise. All the southern exposure of the classrooms is protected by overhangs

and/or a brise-soleil of pine-wood sections. In a similar fashion, the basketball court is wrapped in a galvanized

Rivisa steel mesh that will allow vegetation to climb and create an appropriate shadow for the playground.

new elevator new skylight new courtyard

PROJECT PLAZA URQUINAONA RENOVATION Location Plaza Urquinaona

Programme

Date April 2006 (Contest), Jan 2007 (Preliminary Design)

Prop. Developer City Council of Barcelona

Consultants Teresa Gali (Agricultural and Landscape Engineer)

Construction Firm

Area (m2) 17.400 m2

Budget (€) 5.748.960 € Budget

1. We describe the site in 9 different manners: 9 variables defining 9 different ways to understand, describe and

conceive the public space. Each of the variables coexists with the others and can each generate a project.

Therefore, the selection of one or the superposition of two or more overlapping variables will trigger as many

projects as the number of variables worth investigating.

2. Through the study of the temporary and shifting use of the public space with ephemeral activities, our project

raises the possibility of overlapping two or more temporary states. Thus, we organize an array of items (V6) in which

various artefacts and situations are capable of acting as NODS AND VORTEX GENERATORS OF ACTIVITY. Nods

are arranged horizontally on a matrix (kiosk, vegetation, shade) to organize the public space around and vertically

connect with the underground infrastructure below (V7, stairs, elevators, and skylights).

3. Due to its central location in the city (over an exchange hub) the place is intended for the URBAN NOMAD who

occupies the space to then measure it through paths, displacement vectors (V3, V9) between the vertices of the

matrix and the development of activities belonging to or connected with these poles (rest after eating, read

newspapers, talk on the phone, connect to the internet). We therefore propose to equip the place with a WIFI

connection. All these are basic conditions to convert the plaza into a "smooth" space where displacements are free,

the pavement continuous, (V5) with small topographic inflections to guide us according to a more GEOGRAPHIC

ORIENTATION SYSTEM (north-south, concavity-convexity, diagonal paths) than urban. It is a kind of space hinted

in the initial proposal of Cerdà (V1): the "islands of peace" and its connections to the city based on the movement of

pedestrians as a protagonist and not a residual actor.

4 The limits drawn all time by the different functioning are at time DIFUSE AND VARIABLE (V8). Pedestrian and

Vehicular traffic change according to time and day of the week, opening hours of the subway and newsstand, and

in short working hours and leisure of each user. It should be a flexible space able to absorb and reconcile this

flexibility in design and schedule of use, the reality of the complex use of the contemporary city.

PROJECT RESIDENTIAL UNITS LLULL-TAULAT BLOCK Location C/ Anaís Nin and Llull. FORUM Area, Barcelona

Programme 42 residential units, parking and commercial premises

Date Sep2000 (contest), mar 2001-jul 2006 (project), Feb 2007-

Jul 2008 (construction)

Prop. Developer Municipal Housing Board of Barcelona

Consultants BOMA - Ll. Moya (structures), RC - G. Crespo

(installations), Jordi Cabonell (budget)

Construction Firm CORSAN-CORVIAM

Area (m2) 4.625 m2

Budget (€) 4.278.253 € (11,43% Final work budget

AWARDS

-Finalist AVS 2009 Subsidized Housing in Catalonia.

The building is part of an ensemble of 3 blocks (Coll & Leclerc +Gustau Gili +BOPBAA) located in the Barcelona

newly recuperated Forum area, north of Herzog &de Meuron building.

The building has 42 apartments, commercial premises at ground floor and underground parking, common to the 3

blocks. Of the 42 dwellings, 12 have 3 bedrooms and the remaining 30 only 2 bedrooms. The larger units have

been placed along the street and smaller ones onto the inner courtyard.

The floor plans are arranged in longitunal strips so that both long façades, one facing the street the other the

courtyard, have a symmetrical structure. The center strip is occupied by a fixed core of services and communication

(vertical distribution of services and people) flanked on each side by a ring of service space (horizontal distribution

to each dwelling), which is configured as a large occupiable corridor, either as an extension of the living room or by

appliances for bathing or washing. The outer ring is completely loose and could be reprogrammed eventually in the

future to allow for a change of use or user. It consists in the bedrooms, living rooms, all using up the façade. The

decision to place the core on the inside, serves exactly the purpose of liberating the maximum façade for living,

serving 4 dwellings on each floors. The housing typology avoids the typical cross-ventilation scheme of small front

and very deep and is rotated 90 degrees to obtain 12 meters-front x 5 meter deep housing units. Hierarchy

between children and parents, night and day is avoided in the quest for a greater polyvalence of the spaces along

the outer strips providing equal ventilation, lighting, views, size and are therefore interchangeable or modifiable

(extended or eliminated)

The two main 44 meters-long facades use galvanized steel construction.

On the outer facade to the street Anais Nin (Northeast) we embedded a steel structure that allows the mounting of

large balconies finished with pine wood. The balconies’ structure is galvanized in hot baths. Steel mesh flooring

support is screwed to the galvanized structure and finished with pine wood planks in a workshop. The finished

balconies are thus assembled on the façade avoiding the thermal bridge problem usually derived from overhanging

concrete slabs. The resulting balconies are light, very large and come in 2 different sizes (2.50 x1, 30m2 and 1.80

x1, 80m2) to be used as lookouts, solarium, or green space. There are balconies that stretch to catch the eastern

sun rays and views.

The interior façade facing the southwest courtyard is protected with a double skin, a continuous 60 cm-deep gallery

made up of stretched wire mesh 13.30.20.15. Horturbá devices are used as dividers between properties, domestic

garden furniture with irrigation to allow for plants to grow and climb the mesh façade, protecting the dwelling from

the sun from the west.

PROJECT 44 RESIDENTIAL UNITS IN PARDINYES (LLEIDA), ICS Location Vicenç Ximenis 5, 25007 Lleida, Pardinyes Sector

Programme 44 residential units of with parking

Date Feb 2005 (cont), Dec 2005 (proj), Jul 2006-Jul 2008 (const)

Prop. Developer Catalan Institute of Land

Consultants Guillen Gonzalez (struct), RC-Gustavo Crespo (instal),

(budget), Angela Vidal (NAXAL,Tech Dir)

Construction Firm OBRUM

Area (m2) residential units - 1.235 m2 parking 44 vehicles

Budget (€) 3.418.537 € (-1.37%) Final work budget

AWARDS

-1st Prize AVS 2009 Subsidized Housing in Catalonia.

-Finalist ATEG (Galvanization) Awards 2008

-Pre-finalist X Spanish Architecture Biennial, 2009

-Runner-up 3rd Vesta Awards 2008, API Lleida 2009

- Runner-up III Award I. Miquel Terres de Lleida, COAC

2010

44-UNITS SOCIAL HOUSING, IN PARDINYES, LERIDA FOR INCASOL.

As a response to the site conditions and the sustainability criterias specified in the program ( 1 hour of sun between

10h and 14h at winter solstice for 91% of dwellings), the proposal consists of a single building made up of 2

separate blocks (A&B) sharing a common vestibule and stair, catwalks accesses and 44 dwellings (11 per floor)

based on the same type changing according to the block (180º switch according to the sun-orientation of the block

or according to height (a mirror symmetry is applied from floor to floor).

The layout of this 60m2 dwelling unit (5,65 x 11,80m2) can be adapted to the user (age and number), to the

desired orientation (living and dining rooms are interchangeable to face street or courtyard, or to adapt to seasons).

Bedrooms are also interchangeable and can be transformed into studios.

The dwelling opens to the exterior (street or catwalk) through porches or open courtyards at the facade. They form

transition spaces (not terraces) creating a relationship with the exterior similar to that of a single-family house:

entrance through aluminum sliding doors. The dwelling is thus closed or opened to the exterior through 2 big holes

in the facade, gaining in climate control, view control and safety.

The exterior aspect is bold, perforated by a pattern of openings alternating void and infill with vertical and horizontal

corrugated steel, a metallic skin changing according to the angles of the sun transforms the facade throughout the

day and year. Such variety and ambiguity avoid the typical monotony of the newly-built suburb.

PROJECT ELEMENTARY EDUCATION CENTRE “NOSTRA LLAR” Location C/ Calderon, Sabadell

Programme 2 lines (infant and primary)

Date Sep 2003 (cont), Sep 2004 (project), Jul 2005-Jul 2007

(construction)

Prop. Developer Gisa

Consultants (structures), (installations), Xavier Badia (budget)

Construction Firm CORSAN-CORVIAM

Area (m2) 3.158 m2 new building, 2.637 m2 urbanization

Budget (€) 3.286.065,96 € Final work budget

AWARDS

-Finalist Award ATEG (Spanish Technical Association of

Galvanization) 2008

The program is organized in 3 levels, divided into a public program package on the ground floor and two levels of

classrooms at second and 3rd floor.

The ground floor occupies a 16.90 meters deep strip with the following program: kindergarten classrooms,

administration, dining, kitchen, gym with cloakrooms functioning independently. The second and 3rd floor step back

6 meters to create a southern elevated terrace. Plant 1 st and 2 nd occupies a depth of 9.50 meters and thus is set

back on the floor leaving a south terrace at the second floor level creating a lifted playground.

The north facade is perforated to control the amount of light and view to enter the classrooms. The southern facade

onto the courtyard is protected by a vertically corrugated steel cladding similar to a curtain protecting the corridors

form the strong southern light.

PROJECT PARK ON THE ROOF OF A BUS

DEPOT, HORTA

Location Cra. de Cerdanyola ,Horta, Barcelona

Programme Ecological roof on top of a depot of 300

buses

Date May 2000(cont), Nov 2000-July 2002

(project),

Oct 2005-Dec 2007 (construction)

Prop. Developer TMB – Barcelona Transport SA

Consultants Teresa Galí, Agricultural and Landscape

Engineer, David Garcia, Bis architects,

(structures), Manel Comas (engineer),

Xavier Badia, Technical Arch.(budget)

Construction Firm COMSA

Area (m2) 20.000 m2

Budget (€) 4.130.214,63 € AWARDS

-Finalist European Prize for Urban Public

Space

-Selected V European Biennial of

Landscape Architecture

We are looking for a new perspective, the aerial vision, more in tune with the XXIst century than the frontal vision of

the passer-by, more proper of the XIXth century. The park cannot be seen (only its trees but not its geometry) but

felt (through its platforms, small hills or cuttings…) Geographical, topographical or topological mechanisms rather

than compositional mechanisms

The tilting down or 90º rotation of the vertical plane, from the axis of the monument to the horizontality of the

ground plane, from the frontal to the aerial perspective, is an operation already performed by Giacometti in 1930. In

the first surrealist sculptures, the masks are transformed into architectonic landscapes, and the landscape into a

game board. (“On ne joue plus”, 1932). The first horizontal sculptures, without pedestal incorporated mobility and

play as fundamental elements. “Giacometti’s game board, horizontal sculptures enact the marriage of the field of

the representation –XIX c. architecture- with the condition of the base, the ground, the earth” (R. Krauss). The

object is flat, and horizontal but thick with inner voids.

The park above the Horta bus depot, transforms its 220.000 sq f. of concrete roof into a green urban space at the

urban limit of Barcelona, between the ringroad and the Collserola Natural Park, one the most derelict areas until

the ‘90s.

The park, more than just a green area, is a great open space similar to the plaza of Güell Park. It is a thick and

hollow construction with a width to thickness ratio close to that of Giacometti’s sculptures. The first operation is a

90 rotation, a tilting of the façade into a roof. The façade as a roof and the roof as a façade. The second operation

is the change of scale which will serves us as reinforcement for ambiguity, turning the deck over the depot into

large scuppers which will collect rain water.

As a result of its particular condition on the roof of a bus deposit, the park is conceived as a machine for draining

and conducting water, distinguishing between superficial and deep-water conductions. The artificial nature of the

site (park on a rooftop, limit of the urban area) is reflected in the funnels (superficial waters) whereas the natural

aspect is reflected in the interstitial “wrinkled area” surrounding the funnels.

The large concrete funnels collect torrential water to a central scupper. They are free of natural vegetation and

constitute basins of different finish materials provoking two types of landscape: a cold landscape of sand, water,

earth and concrete and a warm landscape of grass, bamboo, colored rubbers and hiparrenia. The cold landscape

will generate a dynamic activity: skating, water games, bike trials whereas the warm landscape will generate a quiet

activity: lying down, sun bathing, reading, pic-nic, gazing, gardening, and child games.

The so-called “wrinkled area” collects water through a system of micro-basins where the water stagnates and

spreads slowly through the ground. Two types of vegetation articulate the wrinkled area: Type A: hyparrenia and

Type B: a mix of hyparrenia and pine tree basins. The continuity of the actual vegetation of the southern slope of

Collserola Mountains is thus ensured. Agroforestal techniques are applied to a public space allowing to cover large

areas economically.

70’s

plan of plastic modules

EMBUDO 11 – ZONA INFANTIL DE CAUCHO

PROJECT COMMUNITY FACILITIES BUILDING (45 RESIDENTIAL UNITS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, CEIP, NURSERY, PARKING 400 CARS)

Location C/ Londres / Villarroel, Barcelona

Programme 45 residential units 10hj, CEIP, nursery, parking 300

vehicles

Date Jan 2001 (cont), Jan 2002 (project), Oct 2003-Sept 2006

(construction)

Prop. Developer FCC

Consultants Manuel Arguijo (structures), JSS (installations), Teresa Galí

Agricultural and Landscape Engineer, Xavi Badia (budget)

Construction Firm FCC

Area (m2) 18.141 m2

Budget (€) 8.068.100 € Final work budget

AWARDS -Award: National Award for Public Promotion Housing

Quality 2006, Housing Ministry '08

-Award City of Barcelona 2006

-Award of the IX Spanish Biennial of Architecture and

Urbanism (2005-06), Collective Housing category.

-Award II Prize of Housing Architecture J.A. Coderch 2007.

FACILITY BUILDING (45 DWELLINGS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, INFANTS' AND PRIMARY SCHOOL,

KINDERGARDEN, CAR PARK FOR 410 VEHICLES AND RECOVERY OF INNER STREET BLOCK PATIO) AT

LONDRES WITH VILLARROEL, BARCELONA

"I believe taht everyone should live in one big empty space. It can be a small space, as long as it's clean and

empty." The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B and Back Again)

In the competition's conditions of entry, the site was divided in two: The north-facing corner, concealed from the

sun and with scant ventilation, to house 40-m2 dwellings for young people and the Carrer Londres front, for an

infants' and primary school, with much higher building levels than would actually be used. Our idea was to return to

Antonio Bonet's 'Mediterranean' Building, a hybrid that aspired not so much to break with Cerda's rules as to

explore the true potential of a series of bylaws which, though never passed,would have made exceptions

something usual in the new town of the Eixample: its passages, ground-floor workshops, façade courtyards,

singular street corners and a concern with sidewalks that do not allow pedestrians to get away from cars, an

element that did not exist in the 19th century. Bonet redefined the ground floor,sidewalks and alignments, adapting

them to the 1960s.

Our project continues Bonet's concern with extending the sidewalk and moving pedestrians away from the traffic by

recovering the idea of a permeable street that lay at the origin of the Eixample. In this way, Carrer Londres

extends its 20 metres with a succession of parallel spaces, a bar code in which the strips rub against each other,

alternating full and empty, light and building, and creating visual relationships and cross connections between the

street and the street block interior.

The project occupies the 28.5 metres of depth, dividing the building up into narrow, parallel volumes that are

terraced from north to south, letting sunlight into both the dwellings and the infants' classrooms, avoiding the

compactness and ventilation shafts typical of the Eixample, and enabling the two different programmes (school and

dwellings) to coexist and dialogue. These two programmes give rise to an intermediate passage, hall or patio that

leads into the school, freeing up the sidewalk of the students accumulations that tend to occur at school gates. The

complex functions like a miniature city.

The apartment block is laid out with a 7.5-metre deep portico, producing 45 apartments of 45 m2 whose scant

depth provides natural cross ventilation and sunlighting. Access is via industrial walkways suspended over the

passage at a distance of 2 metres from the southern façade, like bridge-balconies leading to the dwellings; 2.5 m2

of entrance porch, a multipurpose space to leave a bicycle, dry clothes, sunbathe or fill with plants. It is as though

we have piled up single-familly houses.

CEIP classroom

kindergarten classroom

PROJECT PUBLIC HEALTH CENTRE M.SALVADOR Location C. Castell de la Solterra- C. Santamaria .

Montilivi.Girona

Programme Public Health Centre (25 practice offices)

Date June 1999 (contest), Jul 2001 (project), Apr

2002-Jul 2003 (construction)

Prop. Developer Catalan Health Service through GISA

Consultants Manuel Arguijo, architect (structures), Manel

Comas, Industrial Engineer (installations)

J.M. Oller and Enric Peña, Technical

Architects

Construction Firm Busquets-Sitjà SA

Area (m2) 1603.3 m2

Budget (€) 1.649.184,21 € (+1,61%) AWARDS

-Finalist VII Architecture Awards of Girona

2003.

-Finalist Saloni Awards of Interior

Architecture 2004.

-Selected FAD Architecture Awards 2004.

-Finalist VIII Spanish Biennial of

Architecture (2003-2004)

-Selected for the V Iberoamerican Biennial

(2006) - Young Architects Exhibition

PROJECT PUBLIC HEALTH CENTRE,GISA -08343, MONTILIVI. EXTENSION Location C. Castell de la Solterra- C. Santamaria . Montilivi.Girona

Programme Extension +12 practice offices

Date Sep 2008-Jan 2010 (project) , 2012- (construction)

Prop. Developer GISA- Catalan Health Service

Consultants BOMA (structures), Manel Comas (installations), Jordi

Carbonell (budget)

Construction Firm

Area(m2) 630 m2

Budget (€) 1.730.799 € Final work budget

Health Center “GIRONA-3” in Montilivi (GIRONA).

Competition for Young architects 1999 (College of architects of Catalonia). First Prize.

We developped a strategy to generate a new tipology for health centers and other similar programs in which

corridors, classrooms or consulting rooms defined an overly rigid tipology. We propose a space with the following

qualities:

-INTROVERTED, on one single floor, and INTERIOR, a compact floor plan perforated by courtyards and skylights

which organize, lit and ventilate the differents pieces of the program.

-ELASTIC, where rooms are interconnected by stretching and corridors widened to form waiting rooms, thus

blurring the division between circulation and waiting areas.

-FLUID, the space is organized by the movement of the visitors following different paths according to the purpose

of their visit. The transition from one room to the other is done gradually along diagonal paths. To access a given

area of the program one has to cross rooms, not corridors. Lightwells function as attractions and different coloured

compact panels define geographically (more than grafically) each waiting room.

-FLEXIBLE. The basic 3,15 wide x 5 m long module of the consulting room organize the program into 5 rows

spaced 1,60m apart by visual strips appearing like corridors but actually melted togheter with the waiting rooms.

Program pieces are interchangeable, and thus the project remains flexible and adaptable to the different

programmatic requirements throughout the supervision process and during future modificacions (rooms divisions

are made of gypsum boards).

-CONVERTIBLE. Sanitary services are isolated in order not to interfere with future redistribution. The d.150mm

metal columm structure is independant from the interior divisions. The alternate disposition of the columns on each

side of the corridor avoids narrow stretches, unavoidable if they were to coincide.

-POLICENTRIC. It is a space without center or hierarchy, made up of solids (program, consulting and private

rooms) and voids (collective space, exchange), open and with possibility for growth and change.

-SECTORIZED. The building is organized in such a way as to fraction its use according to different time schedule.

Thus, programs such as emergency and sanitary education can remain open 24 h while the rest of the building

remains closed.

PROJECT CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC, PROFESSIONAL DANCE SCHOOL, DRAMATIC ART SCHOOL AND HEADQUARTER OF THE BALEARIC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.

Location Cra de Soller, s/n, 07004, Palma de Mallorca

Programme

Date Feb 1997 (cont), March-July 1997(project), June 1998-Sep

1999 (construction)

Prop. Developer Balearic Government, Education, Culture and Sport

Council

Consultants Manuel Arguijo, Architect (structures), Àngel Sánchez ( J.G

Group, installations), Higini Arau, Dr. Physical Science

(acoustic), J.M. Ollér and Enric Peña, Technical Architects

Construction Firm DRAGADOS

Area (m2) 12.985m2

Budget 1.437.965.506 Ptas Final work budget

AWARDS

-1st Prize “1st International Architecture Contest of Brick

and Masonry”. Ministry of Development 2000.

-Special Mention “V Hispalyt Prize of Brick Architecture”.

1999

-Selected work for the FAD Awards 2000.

-Finalist Architecture Awards of Mallorca 1997-2001

-Selected work European Union Prize for Contemporary

Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Awards. 2001

PROJECT CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC AND DRAMATIC ART PHASE 2 Location Capità Salom, 64 - 07004 Palma

Programme Conservatory of Music, College of Dramatic art and Music

Band Headquarter

Date June 2005

Prop. Developer Balearic Government- Education Council

Consultants Manuel Arguijo SL (structures), JG (installations), Higini

Arau (acoustic), Dino Ibañez (stage technology),

AT3(budget)

Construction Firm

Area (m2) 11.650 m2

Budget (€) 13.483.992 € Budget

MUSIC AND DANCE CONSERVATOIRE OF THE BALEARIC ISLANDS.

Palma de Mallorca. Spain.

The first phase of the music and dance conservatoire of the Balearic Islands represents 2/3 of a larger complex

which will be completed with the headquarters of the Balearic Symphony Orchestra and the School for dramatic

arts.

We understood that building by phases didn’t force the project to be a mere addition of pieces but rather a system,

a structural model for growth and change.

The site is adjacent to an exit highway from Palma which despite the rapid development of the surrounding land

preserves its highway condition. We thus planned the building as a small city of music, a center that could channel

the fluxes and revitalize the surrounding neighbourhood. A main structure layed out accross the entire site

organizes the activities of the different centers thinking more in terms of their similarities than in their differences.

We thus group together the spaces generating public activities (auditorium, library, cafeteria, administration, dance

and services) on the ground floor around interior courtyards while the second floor is reserved for classrooms and

seminar rooms. The two floors are visually and physically connected by ramps. The ground floor sets back from the

upper floor forming a continuous porch along its perimeter absorbing the visitor towards the inside. As one ventures

through the building he can easily witness the various events taking places: dance classes, interior gardens,

auditorium foyer, view of the library’s multimedia and lecture rooms and meeting areas.

The minimum unit of this landscape is defined by acoustics: the 10 m2 individual study room consists in an

independent box formed by an exposed plain white brick wall resting on a concrete slab floating on Copopren. A

variable number of “boxes” (classrooms or studyrooms) are grouped together and wrapped by a wall of cobalt blue

enamel bricks.The independance of the two layers is thus visually reinforced and a coherence between acoustic

requirements ( gain mass with layers), architectonic concept (a box within a box), and the building solution (doble

11.5 cm wall with a 6 cm air-chamber without acoustical bridges). The latter one also had to comply with low cost

and easy maintenance requirements.

The facade is the result of the system’s intersection with the edges of the trapezoidal site. This irregular encounter

is covered by a cutout corrugated aluminum skin while the blue brick sticks out revealing the orthogonal growth

system. Both materials reflect a certain lightness in their design arrangement as well as in the play of variable

reflections and apparent images produced by the changing intensity of the solar radiation and the spectator’s

position. The south facade is provisional and is an x-ray of the upcoming second phase: the windows will transform

into classroom doors, corridors or interior courtyard windows.

The degree of polivalence required by the use of certain rooms led us to choose a system of user-variable acoustic

absorption consisting in high- weight velvet curtains. The use of different colors according to their location serves

as an additional geographic position system.

PROJECT RENOVATION AND EXTENSION OF THE SPORT

COMPLEX OF THE BONAIGUA.

Location Passeig de la Muntanya. Sant Just Desvern. Barcelona.

Programme Triple Pavilion and renovation of the hockey pitch

Date Nov 1996(cont), Jan-July 1997- (project),

June 1998-June 2000 (construction)

Prop. Developer Sant Just Desvern City Council

Consultants Manuel Arguijo, architect (structures),

Manel Comas, Industrial Engineer, installations),

J.M. Ollér and Enric Peña, Technical Architects (budget)

Construction Firm PEDRALBES (Callfer, sa. Metalic Constructions)

Area (m2) 2.605 m2

Budget 390.872.656 Ptes Final work budget

AWARDS

-Finalist VI Hispalyt Prize of Brick Architecture 2001

-Finalist FAD Awards 2002

-Finalist III Young Architects Awards AJAC/COAC

-Selected work European Union Prize for Contemporary

Architecture. Mies van der Rohe Awards 2001

REFORM AND EXTENSION OF LA BONAIGUA SPORT CENTER.

SANT JUST DESVERN. BARCELONA.

COLL-LECLERC, ARQUITECTOS SL

Our entry for the original sport hall competition held for the town of Sant Just, defies the proposed site away from

the obsolete complex and places itself right on top of it, thus solving various problems: the recycling of the old

existing building into a transport interchange device connecting the different pieces with their respective

surroundings and solving the gap between the access mountain road and the valley floor, combining the actual

entrance with the access to the future Bonaigua Park. This connexion helps reading the building as the Park Gate,

a meaning which is further emphasized by the two large steel trusses appearing atop the roof.

The building and structural logic has been conditioned by the poor ground conditions (an old river bed): the roof is

suspended from two exterior steel trusses resting on 4 columns carefully stepping over the existing structure

allowing to reduce the interior volume to a minimum. The structure rotates down 90º to take advantage of the

existing foundations on one side and a new truss inserted to support the bleachers and changing rooms on the

opposite side.

Each element, structure, installation or cladding is mounted on site and left exposed to underline its independence.

The materials used insist on the definition of a dense interior. The polycarbonate panels blur the light on the

wooden courts, corridors and changing rooms thus creating a dense fluid atmosphere filling the large void of the

sport hall. The light-absorbing dark blue-enameled bricks bring further depth and reflections to the interior.

BONAIGUA SPORT CENTER, BARCELONA 1997-2001

PROJECT APARTMENT AND ATELIER REFURBISHMENT IN FERLANDINA STREET, RAVAL, BCN

Location C/ Ferlandina 20, 08001 Bcn

Programme Loft dwelling and architecture atelier

Date March – Dec 1998

May-July 2006

Prop. Developer Coll-Leclerc

Consultants

Construction Firm Dec Milla

Area (m2) 320 m2

Budget (€) 87.000 € Final work budget

AWARDS

Finalist, II Edition of the “Live with wood” Awards, 2009

NICO AND PAU'S PLAYGROUND. Ferlandina 20.

Ferlandina 20 is a typical 1860’s working class apartments building located north of the Barcelona Raval district.

The apartment is built with 7 3.3 meters-tall parallel bearing walls every 3.30 meters. Therefore the resulting

longitudinal section is made up of 7 consecutive empty spaces, each with a square section, laid out across a 24x11

metres floor plan. In the 60's and 70's it was known as the Caballero Boxing Gym, time from which remain 64

murals of famous boxers on the walls.

The space is organized by free standing furniture. The last remodelling has consisted in organizing an area for

children (2 years-old Pau and 5 years-old Nicolas), with a compact multifunctional furniture inserted into the space

as an "H" with four sliding doors creating a continuous circulation when opened and organizing the different

activities around it when closed: dressing room for parents, bath area, sleeping area and play and reading area.

The height of 3.30m. Allows for 1.30 meter- tall spaces above or below 2.00 meter-tall spaces so that they can be

used as base for storage or mezzanine space for both sleeping and playing that will become storage space in the

future.

Given the small size of the room, the mezzanines should not be continuous surfaces. We left 5 holes for double-

height spaces, including 2 exposing the original wood beams so that the space is compressed under the

mezzanine (bath, Pau’s bed) or expands in the intermediate zones. The parents’ dressing area (noise) and bathing

area (humidity) are covered by their own roof and are segregated. They contain 3 double-height lanterns, spaces

that capture the natural light during the day coming in through the courtyards of the building. During the night they

invert their function and illuminate the mezzanines.

Both the vertical and horizontal planes defining the large-scale furniture is built with high-density chipboard pannels

filled with mineral wool and painted.

nico and pau’s playground. 2006

juntos pero no revueltos

-Ana Maria Martinez, EPS, El Pais 1746, domingo 14 marzo 20190) pp. 72-75

PROJECT SPANISH EMBASSY RESIDENCE IN CANBERRA Location Arkana St., Empire Circuit, Canberra, Australia

Programme Ambassador residence

Date July 2008 (project)

Prop. Developer Foreign Affairs Ministry

Consultants AJ, Eng.

Construction Firm

Area (m2) 1.120 m2

Budget (€) 2.800.000 € Budget

El solar tiene 2 elementos que condicionan la configuración de la vivienda: dos grupos de 3 grandes

eucaliptos (posiblemente “ironbarks”), en el norte y sur del solar y un desnivel de 7 metros.

La casa se encaja entre los 2 grupos de arboles, fusionando con ellos sus terrazas, porches y

accesos. El desnivel del terreno y su orientación ayuda a configurar una residencia compacta que son

dos viviendas superpuestas, pero cuyo programa privado sobre publico no tiene una presencia

evidente desde el acceso a la embajada y sin embargo se aprovecha el potencial de esta

configuración para dar volumen y presencia a la residencia. Los 3 accesos (a sur la representación, a

norte la privada, al oeste el servicio) dan independencia a cada sector y una rampa exterior los

relaciona.

Uno de los objetivos de la intervención es no dispersar piezas (piscina, vestuarios, pista tenis,…) por

el terreno, sino agruparlas en un recinto cerrado (es un muro de listones de madera) que permita dejar

el solar libre, natural y a la vez aprovechar el potencial de estas piezas para sumar en el conjunto

dando a la residencia una presencia solemne. Todo el conjunto funciona como un complejo residencial

clásico, compuesto de pabellones articulados alrededor de patios, terrazas y jardines, donde

vegetación y luz están presentes en toda la casa. De esta manera se recoge la tradición de la

arquitectura mediterránea (patios, terrazas, porches, jardines, espacio ambiguos interior exterior), la

del sur y centro de España (recintos rodeados por un muro que contienen piezas) y norte

(construcción con madera, articulación de cubiertas inclinadas y lucernarios). El conjunto resultante es

rotundo pero ligero, con unidad en la diversidad.

La ampliación es un edificio ZÓCALO. Aprovechando que el basamento del Palacete casi no tiene aberturas y que

originalmente es una planta de servicio, disponemos todo el programa (excepto un sótano de servicio), en

planta baja, en un edificio que se perfora y retranquea con patios que protegen los arboles existentes, y que

puntualmente toca el Palacete para integrar su planta baja como parte fundamental en la circulación del conjunto.

La altura del anexo nunca sobrepasa la altura del basamento del Palacete Peris y por tanto preservamos su

independencia, destacamos su planta noble favoreciendo su accesibilidad y evitamos la aparición de un volumen

de 3 o 4 plantas imposible de integrar en este solar.

2. COTA DE CORNISA

La cubierta del edificio es una losa horizontal a nivel de la cornisa de planta baja del palacete. El área de

jardín afectada por la ampliación se recupera como espacio verde a 3 metros de altura, una cubierta ecológica y

transitable que permite extender la planta noble del Palacete hacia el exterior como zona de descanso y

recepción, permitiendo además acercar a los visitantes a la copa de los árboles y sus frutos.

3. PRESERVACIÓN DE LOS ARBOLES. PATIOS.

Los árboles (especialmente los autóctonos) está protegidos. En el jardín destacan 2 LAPACHOS (árbol nacional

de Paraguay) en Av. Mariscal López y 4 MANGOS en Eligio Ayala solar. El perímetro construido del anexo en

planta baja respeta con patios y retranqueos de 8 metros los árboles existentes. La excavación del sótano

afecta a la parte de solar donde no hay vegetación protegida. El porcentaje de raíces afectadas sería siempre

menor del 50 % (nunca envolvemos totalmente un árbol) y en cualquier caso la cimentación se realizaría por

tramos alternos para permitir el nuevo enraizamiento de los árboles.

Tanto el público visitante alrededor de los mangos como el cónsul y el canciller junto al Lapacho gozan de

la presencia de estos árboles que participan con su higrometría como un sistema pasivo más en la sostenibilidad

del edificio, protegiéndolo de la radiación solar y favoreciendo la ventilación cruzada.

4. SOSTENIBLIDAD.

Cubierta ecológica, ventilación cruzada, protección solar.

Asunción es la capital más calurosa de Iberoamérica, con un grado de humedad medio del 71%. Por tanto el

objetivo que debe cumplir un edificio sostenible es estar muy protegido de la radiación solar así como eliminar

humedad ambiente interior.

El proyecto fundamentalmente es una gran losa de cubierta perforada con patios. La losa da protección

solar a los espacios interiores y los patios favorecen la ventilación tanto cruzada como ascendente.

5. RETIRO DE FACHADAS

Los cerramientos siempre están retrasados respecto al borde de la cubierta, de manera que están protegidos de la

radiación de sol del norte y de las vistas, apareciendo una línea de sombra que marca el plano de la cubierta

pero nunca un volumen edificado. Los cerramientos son de vidrio con diferentes grados de reflectividad y

aislamiento. La privacidad y protección adicional de la radiación se consigue con unos paneles verticales

exteriores al cerramiento de lamas de madera practicables del tipo del Palacete Peris.

6. UNIDAD DE LA INTERVENCIÓN.

Integración de la planta baja del Palacete con el anexo.

Sustituimos el programa propuesto en el basamento del Palacete Peris (un programa de servicios) por las oficinas

de Cooperación y Comercial. De esta manera la planta baja del Palacete se integra en el circuito de la

Cancillería, conformando una intervención unitaria sin afectar a la independencia del edificio existente. Se

ampliarán las aberturas existentes en el basamento del Palacete para mejorar la iluminación.

7. ATMÓSFERA: ESPACIO DIAFANO, RELACION INTERIOR -EXTERIOR.

Respetamos y potenciamos los ejes y accesos originales del Palacete. Una vez dentro del complejo, el espacio

interior es fluido, una planta diáfana con recorridos lineales y claros entre las diferentes áreas, mientras

que los cerramientos de la Cancillería se pliegan alrededor de la vegetación del jardín, ofreciendo una relación

directa y rica entre las salas de espera, pools y los patios. El resultado es una atmósfera interior liviana, que

transmite tanto al trabajador como al visitante una sensación de transparencia, relajación, ecología y

buena acogida.