The Jury’s appraisal: The building provides continuity between the neighbourhood and the Water House through the highly accurate use of the finishing materials for the paving of the housing estate, transferring them to the façade and roof to integrate the general volume into its setting. The configuration of the building’s two storeys, which makes the most of the topography through the various uses given to the lower storey and through the illumination via the roof lights in the more underground areas and the lateral windows that run along the sloping section of the street, produces fairly polyvalent spaces. On the upper floor, the access to the bar space and central plaza provides a suitable area for residents’ meetings.
The building emerges from the surrounding development, making the most of the topography to become an extension of the public space, transforming the open outdoor space into a structuring, warm social space that provides that which was missing: activity and people. Meanwhile, interior and exterior interlink to generate two new plazas, making the most of the existing unevenness of the ground. The plazas become a conciliatory space in which to hold simultaneous or alternate organised and free activities or enjoy the space for rest and relaxation. The compact volume also means that easily
monitored accesses can be established.
The upper covered plaza operates as a vantage point over Collserola and the Casa de las Aguas. Respect for the environment also translates into the use of a single ceramic material that blends the urbanized space and the building itself. The ceramic benches and balusters configure the perimeter and operate as roof lights to allow light into the interior spaces. The lower plaza generates a garden vestibule leading into the centre. The façades are made from ceramic lattice to protect the large glass windows while referencing the composition of the floor of the new development and ensures that light is brought into the main spaces while providing a secure enclosure.
The building consists of a highly flexible programme of workshops and assembly hall on the ground floor and a bar in the upper part of the complex, making the most of the increase in volume of the polyvalent hall to open up to the vantage point plaza. The building is designed in such a way that the different bar and assembly hall spaces can operate independently from the rest of the building. The building, which boasts class A energy rating, reduces energy requirements to a minimum through passive design tools and the use of efficient and renewable energy sources. The airtight shell, with significant thickness in the perimeter insulation, contributes to its good interior thermal performance. The ceramic lattices protect the interior from direct solar radiation and improve the building’s climate performance in summer.
Priority was given to recycled materials and others from sustainable sources and/or with eco-friendly certificate: recycled natural wood for wall insulation, OSB particleboard for finishing interior walls, water-based paints and claddings of natural origin. The stone construction substantially contributes to gaining thermal inertia and improving the building’s climate control. Klinker clads both floors and façades, leaving a 25-cm air chamber for insulation filled with natural recycled fabric. Ceramic also shapes the absorbent walls that improve the acoustic performance of the workshops and assembly room, reducing the reverberation effect.
