Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri - Arquitectura Catalana .Cat

Memory

Doctor arquitecte i Catedràtic de projectes arquitectònics de la UPC i Director de la Càtedra Blanca de Barcelona. Acadèmic electe de la Reial Acadèmia de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi. Investit Doctor Honoris Causa per la Universitat de Trieste.

L'any 2006 constitueix amb Xavier Martí, Lucía Ferrater i Borja Ferrater, la societat Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), amb Núria Ayala com a Directora de Projectes.
Premi Nacional d’Arquitectura 2009 a la seva trajectòria, atorgat pel Ministeri de Vivenda i nomenat des de Desembre de 2011 membre del Royal Institute of British Architects (International Felow of the RIBA). Medalla d’Or al Mèrit en les Belles Arts 2019.

Des de l'any 2000 ha rebut cinc premis FAD, el Premi Ciutat de Barcelona en les seves edicions 1999 i 2008, el premi Ciudad de Madrid, el premi internacional d'arquitectura i enginyeria Brunel 2005 atorgat per la Família Reial de Dinamarca i el premi BigMat en el 2009. Ha estat finalista del Premi Mies van der Rohe en quatre ocasions i nominat en unes altres set. Ha rebut el Premi Nacional d'Arquitectura Espanyola 2001 pel Palau de Congressos de Catalunya i 2011 pel Passeig Marítim de Benidorm, el premi Dedalo Minosse 2006 a Vicenza, el premi Dècada 2006 i el premi Internacional Flyer 2007. Premi internacional del RIBA 2008 per la monografia de l'editorial MP. Ha rebut una menció a la X Biennal Espanyola d'Arquitectura i Urbanisme en el 2009 i una altra menció especial del Premi Europeu de l’Espai Púbic Urbà 2010 pel Passeig Marítim de la Platja de Ponent de Benidorm que també ha rebut el Premi Nacional d’Arquitectura Espanyola 2011, el Premi FAD, els Premis CEMEX, el Premi Saloni, el Premi ASCER, el FOPA, el Premi del COACV 2007-2009, així com el Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award “best new global design” del 2010. Ha estat convidat al Pavelló Internacional i al Pavelló Espanyol de la Biennal de Venècia 2004, pel MOMA de Nova York a l'exposició “On site: New Architecture in Spain” i per exposar monogràficament la seva obra en el Crown Hall IIT de Chicago, pel Museu de Belles Arts de Bilbao, l'Institut Tecnològic d'Israel, el Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya, la Fundació del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Madrid i l’Accquario de Roma. Des de juny de 2012 diverses maquetes i dibuixos originals del Passeig Marítim de Benidorm han passat a formar part de la col·lecció del Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, algunes d’elles exposades a l’exposició temporal del Pompidou a Málaga “Utopies Modernes” juntament amb l’Edifici Ibèria de Passeig de Gràcia i el Jardí Botànic de Barcelona. També diversos dibuixos originals formen part de l’Avery Collection de la Universitat de Columbia.

És autor, entre d’altres obres, de les 3 illes a la Vila Olímpica de Barcelona, la Vila Olímpica de la Vall d’Hebron, l'Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I, el Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, l'Auditori de Castelló, l'Institut Científic i el Jardí Botànic de Barcelona, el Reial Club de Golf El Prat, Edificis al Passeig de Gràcia de Barcelona, l'Estació Intermodal de Saragossa, l'edifici MediaPro a Barcelona, la torre Aquileia a Venècia, el Parque de las Ciencias de Granada i el Passeig Marítim de la Platja de Ponent de Benidorm, les seus de GISA i FGC a Barcelona, la Casa AA a Sant Cugat, la Biblioteca de Vila-real, vivendes a Abandoibarra i l’Hospital IMQ (Bilbao) i la seu de Michelin a Paris, el Centre Cultural des Jacobins a Le Mans, edificis d’oficines a Barcelona, els edificis intermodal i multimodal a l’Aeroport de Barcelona, l’Aeroport de Múrcia, vivendes a Toulouse, conjunts corporatius i hotelers a Turquia, la reordenació del Port de Tànger, Edificis de la Llotja de Mar a Barcelona, una torre d’oficines a Guadalajara (Mèxic), entre d’altres. Entre les obres en curs destaca un edifici de vivendes a Montevideo un edifici per a una seu corporativa a Beirut, el Jardí Botànic d’Almaty un Hotel a Dubai, Ampliació de la ONG Fundació Centre Esplai i desenvolupament d’un edifici per al tercer sector al Prat (Barcelona), un Hotel a Madrid, un edifici de vivendes i la CASA Seat al Passeig de Gràcia de Barcelona.

Author: Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB)

Works (55)

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Constellation

Chronology (86)

Casa Cordelles

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri
Sant Just Park

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The project consisted of locating a residential complex on a landscaped property with a steep slope located on the outskirts of Barcelona. The previous step consisted of ordering some volumes in the section of land preserving the tree masses. Analysing the project carried out at the beginning of the decade of the 1970s today, I observe how those stepped buildings against the slope of the mountain – designed with an eye on Coderch, for me the last great master, and which was built with artisanal brick, melis pinewood and black iron chimneys that emerge between the pines – withstand the pass of time quite well. The plants have been covering the stepped façades as an extension of the garden and, together with the nobility of the materials used, have contributed to this good conservation over time.
Edifici El Port

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

L'Estartit era fins fa uns anys un petit poble desenvolupat linealment en una estreta franja de terreny entre la platja i la muntanya. La seva imatge era la típica d'un poble de pescadors amb les seves petites cases entre mitgeres, amb alineacions reculades forçades per la geografia, formant un conjunt de cases emblanquinades contra el fons verd de la muntanya. Es va construir el dic en forma d'abric, edificant un gran port esportiu a l'antiga platja, i en el seu lloc va sorgir un passeig marítim. La situació de l'edifici al final de la cinta de construcció, entre l'actual passeig i els carrers d'Illes, vial de vianants sobre el qual es va formar el poble, fa que el projecte es plantegi, d'una banda, amb una vocació urbana sobre un passeig . La casa s'estructura en dues zones: l'anterior, orientada al sud, ofereix un conjunt de safates obertes al port i al mar; sobre ella es desenvolupen les zones de relació dels habitatges. I la posterior, orientada al carrer d'Illes, en la qual, contràriament, les finestres s'obren al mur; els dormitoris i serveis dels habitatges orienten les seves vistes sobre la muntanya, recollint a més l'accés que, aprofita el desnivell existent entre el passeig i el carrer posterior i allibera la planta comercial. El projecte presenta alguns aspectes que poden ser comentats: per exemple, el tractament de la doble façana, per una banda, el tancament de tendals que recupera el pla del passeig i, de l'altra, el tancament intern totalment envidriat que recull les necessitats del programa buscant una certa geometria i orientació dels espais, alhora que forma, al llarg de les terrasses corregudes, zones de diferents dimensions i usos. Altres aspectes a tenir en compte són el tancament dels baixos a manera d'enorme sòcol de vidre, la cornisa superior de remat de l'edifici que transparenta el cel i de la qual emergeixen les rematades de les xemeneies, o el disseny de les baranes, mampares i xemeneies, record d'una certa iconografia naval. I ja més en particular, crec que val la pena destacar l'èmfasi posat en la construcció: l'edifici, tot ell d'obra vista col·locada amb profunda junt horitzontal, obviant les verticals i pintada amb poliuretà blanc, fa que l'aspecte de la paret sigui el d'un enllistonat horitzontal continu.
Bertran 67 Apartment Building

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The project tries to establish a symbiosis between the aspects of the traditional Mediterranean house – the entrance/atrium, the internal street of access to the houses, the patio-garden of the Roman house, etc. – with the intentions of the movement modern, such as the concrete structure, the splitting into duplex, the recovery of the roof, etc... Likewise, construction is understood as an artisanal process with a high prevalence of trades, using old techniques such as plastered lime stucco, appliqués or marble gravel pavements, together with the most sophisticated techniques in the treatment of plastics, glass and aluminum. The fact that the new regulations of the A.M.B qualify large areas of urban centres as extensive residential (12 and 13) – where the great height of the unfolded ground floor equals the main body of the building, together with the fact that more than 50% of the building is not intended for residence – I think that it forces a fairly radical reconsideration in the preparation of the project, both in compositional criteria and in programmatic and typological ones. In this short report I will limit myself to listing some of the intentions of the project that foreshadow the result, without going into considerations about the formal language used. 1- Complying with the regulations regarding parking spaces – avoiding the trauma of the ramp and the use of a small basement between the partition walls – led me to the solution of the lateral garages on the ground floor. 2- The entrance atrium avoids the theme of the receding loft, giving the duplex premises a higher quality in the form of a small gallery. 3- The layout of the staircase and the replacement of the lift by a small freight lift frees up the centre allowing a more global and clear reading from the lobby. 4- The sum of the circulation spaces with the necessary surfaces of interior courtyards allows greater generosity in the treatment of community space, transforming it into a street and interior courtyard. 5- The choice of a typology of duplex homes, recovering for each of them its proportional part of the roof-solarium, turns them almost into terraced homes. 6- The recovery of the patio-garden inside the island, taking advantage of the existing unevenness, allows the location of the underground premises and the small duplex studios with access from the ground floor.
FAD Award

Shortlisted. Category: Architecture

Bertran 67 Apartment Building
Adaptation of Torreblanca Park

Norman Cinnamond i Planàs, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The land, of about 12 Ha, gently slopes towards the south, and the park is configured on a circuit with three distinct parts: the one facing south, where the old palace was located, which is being rebuilt with vegetation in the form of a labyrinth, surrounded by palm trees, cypress trees and parterres; the lake area, with pergolas, islands, grottoes with a romantic image reminiscent of Stevenson's novels, and the avenue area with cypress trees, statues and paved outdoor areas. In them is a set of elements in the form of episodes, such as a theatre, bar, stands, groups of benches, etc., that will encourage the possibility of multiple activities. The works have maintained and enhanced the current values of the estate, sewing the different areas with a tree-lined avenue creating a second park similar to the first, through a geometry of terraced trapezoids, alternating tree-lined squares with rose gardens protected from noise and wind by landscaped slopes with climbing frames. Likewise, a large open-air hall is created with formations of bananas, planted following the laws of perspective that results in the obtaining of an infinite number of parabolic avenues, reinforcing the geometry and dimensions of the space intended, together with the pine forest and the gardens, for the use of large masses of people.
FAD Award

Shortlisted. Category: Restoration

Adaptation of Torreblanca Park
Guix de la Meda House

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

La casa se situa entre dos carrers a cotes molt diferents, i amb accés des del carrer superior. Així, la terrassa d’accés revesteix un caràcter especial, amb la vista al fons d’una roca triangular molt significada. L’emplaçament del programa es fa distribuint els diferents usos entre els dos nivells existents, estrets i molt allargats. La força de la secció s’expressa en els diferents materials emprats a les successives filades, des de la pedra tosca de la part baixa fins a la delicada construcció de maó de l’entrada, coronada per un triangle de coure i vidre, metàfora de la illeta que inspira tota la casa.
El Montgrí Sports Pavilion

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Jeroni Moner i Codina, Arcadi Pla i Masmiquel

El projecte afronta el repte de construir un petit pavelló poliesportiu a la falda del Montgrí, en un terreny en lleuger pendent. La solució és alhora funcional, constructiva i paisatgística: la caixa de la pista esportiva és l’únic volum visible des de la llunyania, i és recoberta amb vidre translúcid armat. El contacte directe amb el terreny té lloc a través d’un pòrtic perimetral que envolta la pista i que estableix una continuïtat amb la graderia mitjançant una escalinata en cascada. El cos longitudinal de serveis, en contacte amb el terreny, permet un recorregut exterior que condueix, a l’extrem est de l’edifici, a un mirador.
Bertran 113 Apartment Building

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

Going up Bertrán Street, two years later and 100 metres further up, I found a program with a similar approach, a different geometry (9 x 30m) and the experience of the first intervention. The result is conditioned by a new way of solving the entrance atrium and its relationship with the street. The entrance to the building is understood as a journey through a glazed gallery of premises and a tunnel of maple wood forming the lobby to finally emerge at an intermediate level on an interior landscaped courtyard covered by a large skylight. From here, a staircase is developed, the lateral service galleries and walkways that allow access to the six duplex homes from which the roof is recovered for private use. From the same interior patio, you can access the studio on the garden floor, creating a garden and a pergola overlooking the tennis club. The structure takes on a 3--2-1-2--3 rhythm, which makes it possible to perfectly overcome the problems posed by the external courtyard façades, those of the construction of the houses’ stairs and those of the central courtyard. The splitting of the ground floor, three metres back from the street, is solved by supporting it from the upper slab, which allows the general open structure to be maintained. Consequently, the retraction of the mezzanine floor plan and the displacement of the lateral porticoes allow the central pillar of the façade to be slender, which allows the binding or curvature to be almost eliminated. Some details on materials and techniques used are: -Reticular slabs with concrete bearing structure. -Appliqués with stone slabs on the street façade. - Interior façades with Cotegran coating with horizontal joints. -Interior metal staircase with sections made up of lacquered wood counters and marble slabs. - South cream marble floors. -Glazing on the street façade and at the top of the commercial premises with 8mm glass. -Spotlights for reflection in the entrance atrium. -The lobby tunnel with maple-applied counters and brass joints on a wooden rib structure. -Skylight formed by profiles with Plexi-type translucent tables forming a camera. -Awnings and interior blinds with helios-creen material. -Black oxidised aluminum closures. - Pergola-garden in rustic wood treated with copper salts and a pavement made of railway sleepers on a bed of sand. -Garden consisting of cypress trees and grass, bougainvillea on the south wall and climbing vines on the bottom and north wall as well as an arch of white roses in the pergola on a background of acacias.
Premio Nacional de Arquitectura

Award-Winner / Winner

Bertran 113 Apartment Building
House on Passeig Molinet

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

El Passeig Molinet discorre seguint la costa rocosa a uns tres metres sobre el nivell del mar des de l’espigó que tanca la dàrsena de l’Estartit, fins el Molinet; un penyal que limita el Freu, canal entre l’illa i la costa. Darrera el mur de pedra hi ha un pati empedrat amb accés a la terrassa superior, mitjançant una escala exterior de fusta de teka, i directament a la zona de convidats reconstruïda sobre antics murs i que s’obre al pati. A sota l’escala una porta comunica amb el garatge. Des del fons d’aquest una escala transversal permet l’ accés a les plantes altes articulant l’habitatge i separant les zones de servei de les zones d’estar. El projecte es planteja des de la secció. Un gran buit central conforma el doble espai comunicant visualment la muntanya a través d’un finestral en arc sobre el pati posterior, i el mar a través de la gran vidriera que en forma de proa tanca la casa en la façana frontal.
Sant Just Park II

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The large unitary roof and the offset barbican help to accentuate this idea of a compact and unitary building. With reference to the second aspect that has been taken into account when designing these homes, it has been that of their internal organisation. Unlike how it is usually done – with a central staircase that connects the different floors through a set of three crossed staircases that run through the building longitudinally and transversely and resting on double-height spaces – the different floors are gradually connected and related areas of the house to achieve greater spatial richness and interior light. Likewise, the game of double space makes it possible to privatise the use of individual gardens by eliminating the views over the adjacent gardens. Regarding the programme; on the two lower levels are the garage, services, kitchen-dining room and living rooms and on the upper levels are the bedrooms and a multi-purpose space under the roof. The set of stairs and the double-height spaces have allowed several variants of interior distribution. At the top of the estate near the ridge of the mountain is a smaller building with three floors of about 300 m2 each among a forest of pines and carob trees. Access to this building is through a tunnel under the garden, which leads to the parking and community services floor, or through the garden along a small path next to the stone wall flanked by magnolias and blanks leading to the cylindrical volume of the inlet. The aspects that have prevailed in designing this building have been the following: 1) Achieving a good relationship with the outside space where the openings adopt different solutions depending on the use and the conditions of the environment. Thus, the living rooms open onto the large terraces with canopies and pergolas on the south façade, the glass tower on the curb from which the ancient gardens can be viewed, the opening in the form of a large window that groups the children's bedrooms over the back garden, the curtain wall of the library over the forest, the window focusing on the landscape at the end of the corridor and the patterned windows of the service area or the open gaps between the walls on specific visuals. All of them contribute to achieving a good relationship between the different areas and the site. 2) Achieving a complex organisation from the simplicity of the floor plan of the house, in which the spaces overlap fluidly following the order of the structure. 3) Emphasise the construction based on handmade brick closing sheets which, when interrupted, allows to radiograph the mixed construction of metal pillars and concrete slabs with partial aspects such as the use of rigid, articulated knots, of simple support or cantilevered to support the front façade. 4) Finally, the use of noble materials such as the local Nicorella stone, manual bricks "maonets", exposed concrete, teak wood, steel and glass must contribute to the desired integration with the context and to the good aspect of the passage of time that was mentioned at the beginning.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Buildings of new plant for private use

Sant Just Park II
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Buildings of new plant for private use

House on Passeig Molinet
Estartit Sailing Club

Juan Díaz Suñer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Gerard Rodriguez Aneiros

L’edifici ocupa una de les cantonades del moll del port esportiu, inclòs dins la dàrsena del port de l’Estartit. És format per dos cossos articulats en forma de L. Un mur situat a la bisectriu de la cantonada fa alhora de separador i d’articulador. El cos principal aprofita les vistes al mar a través d’un gran parament vidrat i d’un petit altell, que permet elevar el punt de vista. Les visuals, estudiades d’una a una, pretenen crear una sèrie de seqüències que van des del passeig marítim, al darrere, fins a l’horitzó del mar. L’edifici actua com un delicat dispositiu visual que té en compte tots els elements de l’entorn.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Buildings of new plant for public use

Estartit Sailing Club
Lola Restaurant

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

This project strikes a balance between the turn-of-the-century building and the construction of a dining aedicule located in the backyard of the building. A toothed and radial plan adapts as if it were origami to the edges of the courtyard and the front façade takes on a circular shape that recreates a small "piacetta". Lattice beams radiate the irregular perimeter and their length is adapted to each one, thus allowing a polygonal and faceted roof to be built through them. This set of beams and scales allows different light effects by providing the interior with a southern lighting combined with the northern lighting of the main façade and also the one that enters sifted through the bamboo canes of the remaining façades.
Vall d'Hebron Housing Complex

Josep Maria Cartañá i Gubern, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The project is located in an area of major transformations responding to the various requests of the environment. A large building stands on the north, with an organic layout the linearity of which is reinforced, gradually adapting to the unevenness of the land and offering itself as a closing element of the whole from a distant perspective. Closing off the sides of the squares, two linear sets of double blocks of different sections and cross-sections, gather the cores of vertical circulation inside the courtyard. A small linear block of low height sews the different buildings, closing the area of the squares and acting as a plinth and support for the two isolated towers.
Three Housing Blocks in Cerdà's Eixample

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri
Rey Juan Carlos I Hotel

Josep Maria Cartañá i Gubern, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The construction of the interior space is the result of a set of design and construction operations. The first of them consists of sliding the formwork of the floor plans of the rooms, forming a set of polygons that regulate the different surfaces that make up the first interior façade. This set of plans that energise the space help to control the acoustics of the great hall. This first enclosure is built using concrete cornices and railings made in two planes, one of glass and the other of cast aluminum elements, which, while maintaining their diaphanous and crystalline quality, avoid the problems of vertigo, cleaning, maintenance and the replacement of its various parts. Two slots, one for lighting and the other for air injection that pressurises the corridors, complete this first membrane. This façade is complemented by the interior that encloses the rooms formed by the elliptical surfaces that enclose the bathrooms, covered with curved sheets of aulocobond and the cylindrical pillars lined with mahogany palm of equal section throughout their height, which they collect the tickets from the rooms. The second project operation is developed in the section. This space is structured vertically in three parts: the lower one, 10 m high, topped by inclined curved surfaces that correspond to the closure of the technical plants and which, due to its slightly vaulted condition, reinforces the personality of this first level which also has differentiated air conditioning. The second level, which is part of another visual plan, is made up of the twelve floors of rooms that make up the central part of the 42 m high space through the game of polygonal axis. Finally, the two floors recede allowing light to enter and smoke to escape, which would turn this space, in the event of a fire, into a zenithally open patio. The last floors with the curved layout and the opaque windowsills act as the end of this whole space. The lighting is achieved with a large stained-glass window facing north and is stiffened with broken and horizontal ribs. A set of metal profiles make the knots, and, in their folds, there is the structural metal carpentry that supports the glass. A canopy goes through the stained glass to collect the access and arrival of cars. This large stained-glass window and openings in the roofs illuminate the hall with northern light, making artificial light unnecessary. This causes the spatial perception to be reversed during the night or day. When it is daytime, the space is projected outwards, accentuating the natural light on the facets, edges and planes. At night the process is reversed, the space closes in on itself, the artificial light marks and follows the lines and the stained glass that reflects the interior and shows the emblematic lights of the city. On the sides of the stained glass are two large concrete screens made with sliding formwork and which contain all the vertical installations serving each floor for connecting and closing circuits. These walls include the air conditioning, extraction and renewal of air in the bathrooms, evacuation of gases and chimney ducts, trolley lifts, suitcase lifts and clothes ducts, the plant offices, emergency stairs and safety installation. These walls make the relationship between the users and all the service networks without crossings possible, and form the main access façade on the outside, depriving the view of the rooms from the outside and causing a strong change in scale which helps place the building on the ground.
Habitatges a la Vila Olímpica de Banyoles (Illa núm. 7)

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

El projecte intenta desenvolupar una solució basada en la teatralitat de l'arquitectura creant un escenari diferent a aquell que s'havia concebut originalment. Es crearen tres tipologies diferents. El llarg passadís de la planta primera es presenta com el centre de gravetat del projecte. Actua com a element intermedi connectant la part superior i inferior de l'edifici, formant un balcó visual des del qual es veu l'escenari urbà creat. Com a contrapunt a l'espai interior l'ordre rítmic de les façanes al carrer contribueixen a produir un efecte sobri i urbà. L'ús dels materials (acer, alumini, fusta, pedra i murs revocats), formant combinacions, defineixen el diàleg plàstic i cromàtic de l'edifici.
Premio Nacional de Arquitectura

Award-Winner / Winner

Rey Juan Carlos I Hotel
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Interior Design - Public, Commercial and Professional Interiors

Lola Restaurant
House and Studio for a Photographer

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Guibernau

The house is configured as a coupling of attached bodies, in the manner of rural constructions. The first body already existed: it was a square stone barn, which has now become the living room. The bedroom body is separated from the first and, between the two, a third body allows the entrance and houses the dining room and the kitchen. Behind these pieces is the photographic set, with measurements determined by the customer. The roof section includes the entrance of zenithal light, as well as a second opening, to the west, which allows the entry of warm evening light into the studio. The guest pavilion, a small wooden structure, is located at the other end of the garden.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Arquitectura - Edificis de Nova Planta, Obres de Reforma o Rehabilitació d'Edificis Existents

House and Studio for a Photographer
Regional Council of Baix Llobregat

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Xavier Güell i Guix

Inside the enclosure of Torreblanca Park there was an old building, in an almost dilapidated state. A basement intended for cellars and above it a high-rise building intended for agricultural uses. The project proposes a new building that surrounds the old building. The land is depressed by means of landscaped slopes, turning the underground floor into the new building's large hall and exhibition hall. On the upper floor there is the meeting room, taking advantage of the old arched structure with a new roof with a stepped section. The offices of the new Council are located around it. A set of voids created in the old structure provide it with a new spatial dimension reinforced by playing with natural light.
Premis Bonaplata

Menció Especial. Category: Restoration

Regional Council of Baix Llobregat
Fitness Centre of the Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The idea of building an underground building was born from the urban planning impossibility of building on the ground level. The building therefore goes underground looking for some old cement slabs at a depth of 7m. What at first glance reads like a set of walls in the form of a sculpture in the landscape, inside, this perception becomes somewhat misleading. The false walls turn out to be girders with large edges capable of supporting large skylights and bearing the weight of the earth, achieving a certain spatial transparency and helping to connect the different areas of the program inside. The central patio, with a small area (a little bit over 100m2), is designed in the shape of a star and, on the other hand, this allows, thanks to its long arms, to penetrate the light in depth while at the same time hiding part of its layout which makes it difficult to discover its scale. The building is built with a single material (reinforced concrete) and the construction process proceeds only with the geometric order of the formwork that is more taken care of in the false walls and is left raw in the formation of the inclined slabs. A single constructive detail - in the change of section of the walls of the lower level by increasing and forming screens that define the central space - allows the waterproofing and formation of the water mirror. The program is organised on two levels: the lower level contains the changing rooms, saunas, jacuzzi, Turkish baths and activities of a more private nature. On the upper level - located underground but in contact with the garden through ramps that visually communicate it with the outside - contains all the activities typical of a centre of these characteristics: aerobics, yoga, dance, weight rooms, cardiovascular, relaxation, swimming pool, beauty centre, medical centre, shop and auxiliary services. A double perimeter wall connected to an installation room provides all the technical needs of the different spaces, thus freeing the ceilings and floors from the need to accommodate technical elements and thus achieving great transparency. In the end, the building is shown to us as an underground light box that connects the interior space and gardens with the exterior, takes advantage of the reflections of light in the water, visually communicates the different spaces and prevents views from the outside.
Triginer House

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Guibernau

This is a single-family home in Vallvidrera, on plot number 4 of the existing estate between the streets of Actor Morano and the funicular’s route. The plot is located on a steep slope with accessibility problems, with a north-east orientation although with magnificent wide views over a forest close to the city. The house is built in two parallel and staggered bodies on the slope that build an empty space, oriented to the south, with a distant view of a mountain and the sea. These two bodies are connected on the lower level by organising the garage and annexes at the back, and a linear and continuous space at the front: hall and play area, gym with changing rooms and sauna, and owner's suite. Spaces that communicate through sliding panels and that connect to the outdoor pool. At the top of the front body there is a large space intended for living room-library-study which is connected to the lower level by an open staircase with a zenith skylight over the hall and a small secret staircase hidden by a piece of furniture, which connects the living room with the owner's bedroom. A small dining room and the kitchen are in the rear body. Between these bodies and crossing as a connecting link is the patio, there is a small, glazed body that can be opened and incorporated into the empty space between the two volumes. This space plays with light by means of large mobile panels next to the sea and a pergola suspended by catenaries of small wooden slats that offer denser shade. The background of this space, which incorporates the kitchen, is the mountain where a forest of black reed bamboos has been planted. The side garden that joins this space with the lower level of the pool is made up of another grove of white cane bamboo. Finally, the guest suite is at the top of the rear body, communicated by a staircase that intertwines the three levels.
Arruga Cinema Studios

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Guibernau

The project arises from the decision to locate the ARRUGA film studios in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Barcelona considering the production of films and commercials as an industrial activity. Thus, a building destined to house a creative activity was confined to coexist in a grey world, without language, like factories and warehouses with the typical hourly activities of industrial estates. Faced with the impossibility of generating a language with its "neighbours", the building becomes an image and reflection of its own essence, showing itself in the only possible way: a building for making films. When it gets dark, the main façade becomes a piece of celluloid, becoming the very activity of the building such as production, post-production, realisation, etc. The rest of the programme is hidden behind the blind box; casting, costumes, props, assembly warehouses, workshops, dressing rooms and services. Finally, the large space intended for the cinematographic set is presented to us in its most neutral form. The construction (materials, structure and installations) of this space is put at the service of the main activity, reinforcing the neutrality of the project. The building is constructed with the technique and prices of an industrial building; an exposed steel structure with fire protection, forged ribbed iron decks, concrete block walls, polished concrete floors, exposed installations and a façade of cement-wood counters. The project incorporates as an external element a linear plantation of Populus tremula a short distance from the main façade. This plant formation reveals to us a new negative interstitial space of the interior. This space relates the internal activity to the external space at the same time as it uses their changing condition. In the summer, a thick green mattress will protect it from the sun, in the autumn it changes colour and clears the leaves, in the winter it becomes a reflection on the large, glazed window, and in the spring it will show the different shades of green. Between this screen of trees and the street of the polygon, an open space is designed for the arrival and circulation of vehicles. Finally, in an industrial estate, a grey box raises a question of architecture; the tension between the envelope and the internal space articulated by the light.
River Ter Museum

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The project is based on the remodelling of the old Sanglas factory and aims to recover the essential typology of the tall, elongated river factory. For this reason, all the additions that detract from its original form have been removed and a new vertical body has been added that continues and completes the river factory structure that concentrates the parts necessary for the functioning of a contemporary museum: stairs, lifts, goods lifts, management and services. The new body acts as a tower connecting the three levels of the building. The whole intervention gives maximum prominence to the volume converted into a museum. The main access is through the square created by the new extension. The museum pieces on industry and local history are distributed on the ground floor and first floor. The temporary exhibition hall, auditorium and the River Ter study centre are located on the second floor. The architecture, with this juxtaposition of the historical and the modern, will become the first ingredient that explains the contents of the museum and, at the same time, the first piece of the future Ter river park.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Arquitectura - Edificis de Nova Planta, Obres de Reforma o Rehabilitació d'Edificis Existents

Triginer House
Lawyers Mutual Society of Catalonia

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

Located at 108 Roger de Llúria Street, close to the headquarters of the Lawyers’ Association of Catalonia, the existing premises are developed on the ground floor, a partial basement and of low height and some small attic dependencies, also of reduced height, and with problems of use, given the structural elements (joists and beams). The premises have a narrow and deep configuration (51.5 m) with little street frontage and a lack of intermediate courtyards. The project proposes an intervention limited in extension, however, which radically changes the spatial perception of the existing premises. The project also aims to optimise the use of the different spaces, organising the various activities by zone. A first access space, taking advantage of the conditions of the two façade openings, to access a first area, and then enter and recognise the full dimension of the intervention. The second façade opening on the axis of the premises thus becomes an eye that allows the central space to be illuminated and visualised from the outside. The name and anagram of the entity will be placed on the glass. The central area, which contains the mentioned radical intervention which consists of opening a void in the floor and the ground floor of 9.5 x 3 metres, which allows spatial and visual communication of the care areas for the mutual members located in the access level and the areas for occasional medical consultations located on the lower floor, in which, through a small excavation, the necessary height is obtained (2.50 metres). This spatial void visually communicates the mezzanine intended for archives and staff leisure, with a suspended walkway. With this intervention, a triple-height space is generated that includes the circulation elements: staircase-ramp, steps, stairs and walkways, visually communicating the areas for public attention, work, consultations and archives. Finally, the management offices and the large meeting room are at the back of the premises, opening onto the inner space of the block, which enjoys the possibility of lighting with large skylights of zenithal light placed on the roof. At the back of the premises, we create a small terrace-patio-garden in relation to this intermediate space with zenithal light, which connects the management offices to optimise the conditions of light and comfort causing attractive views of the landscaped courtyard. A whole set of complementary activities, services, facilities, warehouses, emergency exits, etc., are strategically placed in intermediate spaces of the project, solving security and evacuation issues.
Nova Seu de Fisersa a Figueres

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Guibernau

Fisersa's headquarters building is located on an industrial estate on the road from Figueres to Roses, on a site opposite the trade fair precinct, surrounded by other industrial buildings and warehouses. The complexity of the brief involved organising the bu ilding into tour different zones. The first is of a more representational and public nature, with a large lobby, a lecture hall, an exhibition area and customer care zones. The upper floor contains the management areas, separate administration departments, rooms far meetings, filing rooms, utilities etc. A third area caters far the workforce, with changing rooms, workshops and storerooms with access far vehicles. The last zone is that of the vehicle pool, with the bus park and the vehicle washing cleaning and servicing areas. The diversity of the brief led us to design the project as one unit, incorporating all the parts and sections within a volume that occupies the entire site and takes on a certain symbolic cha racter as a public building, but is built as though it were an industrial one as regards both the construction decisions and the budget. The strength and opaqueness of this volume contrast with the friend liness and abundance of natural light within its interior. A large, ambiguous opening in the façade of the vehicle courtyard manifests the essence of a building at the town's service, as the client had requested.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Architecture

Arruga Cinema Studios
Barcelona Botanical Garden

Josep Lluís Canosa Magret, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Bet Figueras

The Barcelona Botanic Garden extends along the upper side of the Montjuïc mountain that overlooks Barcelona, and holds spectacular views over the city. It is a garden where plant species from areas of the world with a Mediterranean climate live together, sorted by geographical area. Therefore, the species found there adapt quite well to the city and can be exhibited outdoors. The garden is created by accommodating a geometry of paths that cross each other forming triangles (you can clearly distinguish a main circuit that makes the visit very easy) adapted in a very natural way to an uneven slope. This powerful geometric order served the architects to organise the entrance park, and will be replaced, over time (already happening in some areas of the park) by a vegetal order that is the result of an intelligent planting of undergrowth, bushes and trees that will grow over time and give the whole set a natural order as logical as the artificial one. The two currently coexist perfectly in various areas of the park. The palette of artificial materials is basic: wooden fences, rusted iron and concrete. The auxiliary buildings are also built with these materials. The beautiful high school that crowns the park should be highlighted, a prism that levitates a few metres from the ground and that leaves a rusty iron window as a privileged vantage point of the city. The complex constitutes one of the most beautiful urban spaces in the city, and the multiplicity of routes created by its geometry of paths makes it a very pleasant place for a long stay.
Passeig de Gràcia 23 Apartment Building

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The regeneration of the building on Passeig de Gràcia-Diputació where the Femina cinema was located, destroyed by a fire, has allowed us to reconstruct the old façade designed by the architect Antoni de Moragas. Due to environmental considerations, the façade of Passeig de Gràcia has been restored with a project that offers a variety of typologies that can be compatible with the different heights of the ground floor slabs plus the six floors that made up the old building. At the front, flats are located across the entire width of the building, constructing a single courtyard 9m from the Passeig de Gràcia façade. At the rear, four flats are located on each level in duplexes developed on eight levels equivalent to the six storeys of Passeig de Gràcia. On Carrer Diputació there are small single or duplex flats on the ground floor. Thus, in the interior of the block, new, more contemporary and expressive façades are generated that encompass the interior space of the block with the large ground-floor premises illuminated by skylights. The foyer, staircase and common spaces act as transitional spaces between the old and the new.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Interior Design

Lawyers Mutual Society of Catalonia
Premi Ciutat de Barcelona

Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Architecture and Urbanism

Barcelona Botanical Garden
Palau de Congressos de Catalunya

Josep Maria Cartañá i Gubern, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

Despite being the result of a series of private promotions, the project reflects on the site and the program as if it were a public facility. The university area is read as a periphery with a great urban vocation, marked by the presence of several university faculties and some sports facilities. The place is read as a reference-laden environment, to which the building responds with a set of built-up volumes that show a great vocation for unity. The plan is organised in three main crevices separated by two longitudinal streets, which connect the highest elevation of Diagonal Avenue with the gardens at the back. The white concrete of the entire façade unites the volumes of various dimensions, and the openings are adjusted to a very strict repertoire in order to create a stylistic coherence. The building promotes the urban character of the area and presents a continuity with the existing uses.
Premis Bonaplata

Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Arquitectura - Nova Realització Industrial

Nova Seu de Fisersa a Figueres
Conjunt d'Habitatges Urbis a Can Gibert

Carles Bosch i Genover, Alberto de Salas, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Joan Lluís Frigola i Torras, Joan Pascual Argenté, Josep Francesc Vaquero Moreno

Tretze espais de comerç i 268 habitatges de dues façanes, organitzats en un nucli per cada dues unitats (22 escales). En terrenys d’una antiga indústria de paviments, adjacent a un elemental barri d’habitatge barat (Can Gibert del Pla) dels setanta i veïna també d’un treballat pla parcial d’eixample (Carles Frigola, 1990), aquesta operació adopta una disposició a escala de l’avinguda principal (passeig d’Olot), amb un potent gest corb del volum, tot atenent amb prou delicadesa la trama urbana menor dels carrers locals. El recinte es defineix com una cinta graonada, capaç de donar una alçada matisada a cadascun dels espais públics que la volten així com d’incloure un espai comunitari que no tanca continuïtats viàries. En són trets principals l’èmfasi en els vèrtexs, la discontinuïtat expeditiva de les cantonades i una estratificació exfoliativa de les alçades, amb recursos formals escassos i precisos.
Residential Building and OAB Office

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

Building between partitions of 11.60 m width that completely exhausts the buildable depth to the interior of the block. The program is developed on three levels intended for architectural office, four levels intended for residence, with two homes per landing, and three basement levels for vehicle parking, organised in half floors. The structure of the façade is made up of vertical elements with 50 percent full-empty, as is mandatory in the Eixample Cerdà. The four materials used are traditional: stone, iron on the balconies, wooden gates and glass. The façade is organised with four skins, like an onion, which are 40 cm thick: a modulated interior glass curtain wall of 0.90 and 2.80 m at full height, with nyangon wooden slat porticoes that they move on guides, a rail run with thin steel plates, and frames that support Indian silver quartzite stones placed in horizontal slats of 90 by 30 cm with 4 cm openings that match the empty parts of the porticos. In order not to offer protruding bodies to the street, the façade is structured in a single plane. The possibility of combining fixed pieces with mobile ones produces a certain dynamism that allows to play with the light openings inside and sift the view and the noise of the street.
Building of the Botanical Institute of Barcelona CSIC

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The Botanical Institute building – a centre dependent on the Superior Council of Scientific Research – is located at the highest point of the Barcelona Botanical Garden on the side of the Montjuic mountain together with the Olympic Ring. The building faces the north-east wing of the garden, the area dedicated to the phytoepisodes of the Western Mediterranean and North Africa, with views over the city of Barcelona. It is structured as a horizontal line that intersects the natural sloping terrain like a hinge between two topographic elevations. In this way, the section allows the different programs to be organizsd with independent access from the back road and from the network of paths in the garden. The Botanical Institute is divided into three different levels according to its program: – A first underground level located in the large concrete vessel that forms the foundations and that contains, with specific air conditioning, the plant deposits, books, the large herbarium, as well as the installations and the small work area both illuminated and ventilated through patios. This plant acts as a structural counterweight to the constructive mechanism of the upper plants; a set of reinforced concrete screens, walls, girders that organise the program and support the intermediate level at the level of the garden and from which the upper floor is suspended at the level of the access platform and rear parking lot. – The multipurpose room and the Salvador Museum, the exhibition area and the cafeteria-restaurant are on the intermediate level, connected to the Botanic Garden’s path network. All of them have access to the garden. – The restricted area intended for scientists; the library, research areas and laboratories and the administration area are on the upper level. The six-metre corridors adapt to the different structural and lighting requests, making up a continuum in which the gusts become more powerful as the topographic fall of the land becomes more pronounced. The construction uses the same materials already present in the construction of the garden; exposed concrete and Corten steel.
Five Street Blocks on the Seafront of Poblenou

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

This façade faces to the sea of Barcelona. This plan not only contemplated infrastructure operations but the possibility of building homes and some services by demolishing a large area of old factories. The most important building operation was, without a doubt, the Olympic Village that came to restore a certain urban continuity between the city and the Poblenou district, recovering the historical thread interrupted when Barcelona decided to abandon the sea and grow perpendicularly towards the interior. At the same time, the plan accommodated a private housing development on three blocks occupied by the Torras Herrerías y Construcciones industry with a dual purpose; on the one hand, two of the three blocks had to accommodate the Olympic referees during the games and, on the other, due to the neighbourhood with the area of the Olympic Village, this operation had to facilitate the reconversion process urban area of the rest of Poblenou. The architect Carlos Ferrater and his team of collaborators obtained the commission after the resolution of a restricted competition between several architects. His project entered the general process of realisations that needed to be completed by 1992 and represented the exceptional opportunity to rebuild in a single operation three blocks of Cerdà’s Eixample previously occupied exclusively by factory buildings. The area of the three blocks, aligned with each other and parallel to the coastline, is delimited by Llull and Ramón Turró Streets and, towards the mountain, by Zamora and Ávila Streets; a group whose promoters named Maritime Eixample in reference to the persistent traces of Cerdà's urbanisation and its proximity to the sea. Only the one adjacent to Zamora Street could not be rebuilt in its entirety due to the presence of industrial buildings belonging to other owners. The popular Can Torras dels Ferros, as we have already seen, was one of the most important metallurgical industries in Barcelona. The industrial process consisted of iron casting, rolling and construction of structures for the building, boilers, railway material, etc... A special narrow-gauge railway joined these processes crossing the streets and another of normal width connected the factory with the route from France to Granollers. The carried out project contains 560 homes of different sizes and types; commercial premises on the ground floor, some offices and a shopping centre. The three blocks have a uniform architectural treatment and are linked by a tree-lined promenade that crosses its inner gardens roughly where the railway lines once did. A swimming pool has also been included in the garden of one of the three blocks. They are built on their perimeter but the built bar is interrupted by the aforementioned promenade and by passages located in front of the Ramón Turró pedestrian crossings, which separate the chamfers and configure them as apparently taller buildings. The lower floors are transparent so that you can see the interior vegetation from the street and allow access to the interior of the blocks from several points. We could say that it constitutes the closest example of what Cerdà proposed as an alternative to that suffocated Industrial Barcelona within the walls built to this day. When these lines are printed, it will maybe still be possible to see the exhibition on the illustrious urban planner held in the barracks buildings that Pompeu Fabra University plans to occupy. The citizen of Barcelona has at hand a golden opportunity to clear up some misunderstandings and increase their capacity for critical judgment about the city; in other words, to increase their civil culture. Earlier we summarised the dual vocation that Barcelona showed to develop on its plain represented schematically by two perpendicular directions. At first, the neoclassical façade from Montjuic to the Ciutadella park and the Old Cemetery was built, a frustrated development that could have taken the axis of the Gran Via as the backbone of a growth parallel to the coastline. Following Cerdà's scheme with another tendency, as a second and correlative act, it effectively grows on the perpendicular of the sea and a city is produced whose façade is split on an axis, identifying itself with its own façades of Passeig de Gràcia. We could do a simple critical exercise and compare the characteristic block that built the fabric of the bourgeois Eixample and then its lateral extensions, with the one that a century later could be built on the same urban plan but in that marshland territory which was destined to receive the cemetery, the railway, the factories and the industrial proletariat. In short, we could say that the history of the Eixample’s construction coincides with the process of densification of the blocks to the point that it leaves no trace of any space inside that could be considered free or with any civil significance. The typical block has a side of 113 metres, with chamfers of 20 metres, which is also the width of ordinary streets. In the built-up area, the neighbours' houses reach an average depth of 28 metres, so that once the crown is subtracted there are 57 metre yards, therefore, with a surface of 3249 m2. But almost all these patios are also built on the ground floor, and their soil is made up of the roofs of warehouses, garages or workshops, so the little soil that may be there would have to be found in the planters. From above, a block looks like a patchwork, a piece made from the patches of built-up plots. It is rare to see a tree and at best the inner courtyard retains some regularity. The block is therefore a solid and massive prism, intransitive with respect to the street, the result of a consideration of the city as a pure commodity, of a petty and usurious attitude that hypocritically sought to redeem itself with the alibi that could lend him the beauty of a few works, in particular that of modernist architects. Magnificent sarcasm if we consider the discomfort these architects had when seeing their buildings reduced to simple decorative façades, and let’s also remember that Gaudí, one of the most praised, ended up begging for alms in the streets. However, we believe that despite this congestion and this alignment the Eixample has not lost its potential qualities. The greed of many has not been able to cope with the generosity of a few (Cerdà, Gaudí...). Let's compare these data with those of the project we are discussing. Here, the built-up depth is 12.70 metres, so the houses have two façades and no interior courtyard. The inner courtyard of the block then has 87 metres on a side and 7569 m2 of surface and is landscaped. The two-storey shopping centre is the only building built inside one of the blocks. The free area, therefore, contains more than twice the surface area of the block of the historic Eixample, and the courtyard is, moreover, completely regular. The streets that remain between the blocks retain the basilica section of three naves, with 5-metre sidewalks, extended by a 3-metre porch and are visually and for pedestrians connected to the interior gardens. The distances from each house to the neighbours opposite are of 80 metres in the gardens and 20 metres in the streets. From inside the houses you can see the trees in both spaces. We could complete these quantitative data with a short subjective description from the perspective given by the inhabitant of this place. There is a placid but dynamic neighbourhood relationship. The commercial equipment is not yet complete, but the most essential shops already exist. A wide area of sky is dominated, the brightness of dawn and sunset is perceived, and the passage of the day is marked by the presence of birds and the voices of children. The succession of the seasons is felt through the vegetation. In summer, the song of the cricket accompanies and does not wake you up. The garden generates an effective microclimate and a fauna consisting of seagulls, blackbirds, feathered mice, sparrows and woodpeckers visit us regularly. In certain periods, the silence turns into delight and the relationship with the patio of the small bedrooms reproduces the one that takes place between the cell and the cloister of the monastery. Encouraged, among other things, by the protective and ecological quality of the garden, it becomes a veritable demographic explosion, which provides a clue, in terms of urban planning, about the ecosystem that citizens need to repopulate Catalonia. Still recognising that it falls into a certain idealisation in contrast to a Barcelona densely compressed by its own building, this example shows that a balanced model of urbanisation is possible, compatible with a reasonable real estate profit and without the need to make great inventions. Thus, a Poblenou rebuilt according to this pattern would not seem bad to us, where Cerdà's footprint persists; a monotonous Poblenou where the monotony consisted of the democratic repetition of the well-being of each individual, family or social group; in the recreation of a harmony between the built and the free, between the private and the public sphere, between staying and moving..., that harmony that Cerdà dreamed of as possible for the industrial city.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Architecture

Residential Building and OAB Office
EU Mies Award

Nominated

Palau de Congressos de Catalunya
El Prat Royal Golf Club

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The new headquarters of the El Prat Royal Golf Club is located on slightly sloping land surrounded by linear areas of pine forest and terraces. The project of the club headquarters and the annexed buildings is conceived according to the criteria of respect and integration into the landscape, accessibility, communication and centrality with respect to the playing field. The programme of the central building of the Casa-Club is based on a meticulous study of the topography and is developed on two levels; the service area (depot and storage area) is buried and the technical area and facilities not visible from the outside are concentrated in the centre. With this criterion, the view over the landscape can be enjoyed from the entire façade. The building is accessed from the upper floor - at the end of the wooded area intended for parking - through a large hall where the longitudinal distribution axis of the building begins and, on its sides, the most representative functions of the social club are distributed. On one side, the games room, bar with large terrace with pergola, party rooms and restaurant and, on the other, the spaces intended for offices and administration. You can access a double-height space and the hall on the lower floor from the main hall, through an open staircase. The hall on the lower floor is oriented transversely with respect to the building so that it opens to the two opposite orientations to the landscape. This allows access to the members' changing room area, which has been designed with great generosity and which functions as a living and meeting area. Each one has a sitting area, sauna, massage and a small indoor pool. This level houses the parking lot for electric cars and golf clubs, a small bar and a gym. The annex building is made up of a changing area for visitors, the summer bar and a building for children and is attached to a wall - which starts from the central building - adapting to the terrain and assuming a staggered configuration in plan to soften the impact on the landscape. It also acts as a filter towards the parking area and the outdoor pool area. The whole is organised in three levels that correspond to different functional areas; the main swimming pool area - with an adjacent green area - includes kitchens connected to the central building, an outdoor bar and changing rooms for partners with a symmetrical layout with respect to access with men's and women's areas. Between the two there is a bathing area, another resting area and the cabins at the bottom. By means of a height jump, the swimming pool for children under the age of fifteen becomes independent and an outdoor play area is integrated with a wooden pergola where parents can meet with their children to eat together. The last area houses the building for children where the service areas (bathrooms, kitchen, changing rooms and facilities) are distributed on the part adjacent to the wall; while the games room, separated from the TV room, is opens to forest views. There is also a small pool in the children's area. The materials used are white brick and green quartzite and the integration of the building into the context is accentuated with the horizontality of the whole.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Architecture

Building of the Botanical Institute of Barcelona CSIC
House for a Photographer II

Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

La parcel·la es caracteritza per tenir una forma perpendicular al mar de 250m de longitud i 18m d’amplada. És una zona de cultiu que discorre des de la platja fins al fons on hi ha unes ruïnes, canyissars i arbres llimoners. La casa per un fotògraf II s’ubica al fons d’aquesta parcel·la. Construïda sobre una plataforma elevada de 50cm sobre el terreny natural inundable, tres petits volums de forma irregular en planta i secció entaulen un diàleg a través d’un espai buit amb fugues visuals. Un palmerar de 51 palmeres Washingtònia ens condueix des de la platja fins la casa. La descomposició volumètrica respon a les condicions de la llum i de la construcció del paisatge que suggereix un quadre de Picasso pintat en aquesta zona que es troba al museu Picasso de Paris. El buit central es converteix així en l’espai principal de l’habitatge; un espai tens relligat geomètricament en la seva part superior a través dels cossos opacs alts dels diferents pavellons. En el nivell de terra fins a l’altura de 2’10 es forma un espai continu que relaciona els diferents espais interiors amb ombra, les vistes al mar, el fons vegetal i les zones d’estança sobre la plataforma. El joc descompost de volums ens recorda a la composició cubista del famós artista. El clar-obscur i la intensa llum d’aquesta zona del mediterrani equilibren la plenitud de la topografia de tota aquesta zona del Delta.
Empordà Hotel, Apartments and Golf Club

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Agustí Borrell i Calonge, Carles Borrell i Calonge, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

El paisatge d’aquesta zona de la província de Girona ofereix un gran camp visual amb àmplies perspectives com són la presència del riu Ter i en especial el massís del Montgrí que es converteix en referència paisatgística d’aquesta zona del Baix Empordà. L’Hotel es situa junt al complex residencial al centre dels terrenys del Club de Golf, al costat dels forats més espectaculars del recorregut, oferint una potent silueta com a ròtula visual del conjunt arquitectònic. El vial d’accés que serpenteja entre els diferents forats del camp de golf condueix els usuaris de l’Hotel fins a una gran plaça o esplanada sota la qual resten ocults els aparcaments. La plaça permet, a més, la seva utilització com a plataforma en la qual recollir els diferents esdeveniments esportius i tornejos de golf. Es planteja, doncs, un edifici compacte de planta baixa més dos en la seva part posterior al costat nord junt a la plaça d’accés i, a la façana sud, s’ofereix una planta més degut al desnivell del terreny. Aquesta planta alberga els salons, bar, menjadors, sales multiús... Tot plegat assistit per les dependències de servei que es situen a la part posterior d’aquesta planta més enfonsada, il·luminades i ventilades per un pati anglès que permet l’accés de logística a cuines i magatzems i facilita també la comunicació directa a l’Hotel des de l’aparcament situat sota la plaça. Les plantes superiors s’organitzen en creu amb habitacions de diferents tipologies i mesures, obertes a les quatre orientacions ja que totes elles frueixen d’esplèndides vistes al paisatge circumdant; muntanyes del Montgrí, platja de Pals, visuals més properes del propi camp de golf i altres més llunyanes del paisatge de l’Empordà. La planta d’habitacions, de gran compacticitat, permet l’optimització de les zones comunes; una bona disposició dels recorreguts d’evacuació, circulació principal i de servei, el pas dels corredors o passadissos cap a la llum i la vista exterior. Així, arriba a configurar unes estries que pauten rítmicament les façanes nord i sud. El conjunt d’habitacions (87), de les quals 7 són suites, resten així organitzades de forma elegible permetent minimitzar els efectes d’una gran edificabilitat (6.000m2 sobre rasant). La coberta de l’edifici es corona amb un gran dipòsit d’instal·lacions i plaques solars per la instal·lació d’aigua calenta sanitària. El revestiment de les façanes és de taulells de fusta d’Ipe, tractada en autoclau, proporcionant diferents textures als plans massissos i als laterals de les habitacions, construïts amb travessers marins de fusta. Aquests laterals es presenten com una gran retícula d’espais intermedis, que actua de filtre entre l’habitació i el paisatge. El cos de ponent conforma una gran marquesina sobre l’accés i, suportat per un conjunt de pilars, ofereix un contrast en clarobscur i una transparència sobre l’espai obert, que alleugera la gran massa de l’edifici, en contrast amb la solidesa i potència de la seva implantació sobre la topografia. L’ interiorisme accentua la calidesa espacial d’un hotel en contacte amb la naturalesa i les condicions de confort, que es posen de manifest en les textures, mobiliari, i la configuració dels passadissos i les habitacions. Un baldaquí de revestiment de fusta lacada de diferents colors estructura l’habitació i facilita la disposició de panys de paret límpids en connexió visual amb la terrassa que d’aquesta manera forma part del mateix espai de l’habitació.
Terminal 2B Intermodal Building at Barcelona Airport

Artigues & Sanabria Arquitectes, Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Ramon Artigues Codó, Josep Maria Casadevall i Márquez, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Ramon Sanabria i Boix

The intermodal building and connection to Terminals A and B is externally characterised by a façade that extends beyond the dimensions of the building itself, as an attempt is made to establish continuity between the façades of Terminal B, from the Miró mural, and from terminal A. The project proposes a neutral façade in its treatment so as not to create mimicry with the current façades. For this reason, a clad façade of extruded aluminum is proposed, which aligns with the façades of the neighbouring terminals. The volume of the new building is located separately from the new façade closure and acts as an independent volume, with an envelope of four façades with a double skin. The inner skin is of opal pavé, which will act as a large public skylight towards the interior, while the exterior is made of polycarbonate. The space in between serves as a service gallery.
Vertix Dwellings

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

On the new Diagonal Avenue of Barcelona opposite, the Central Park designed by Jean Nouvel at the end of the northern side of the block, there is a residential building that meets a double condition: as the front of an open block to the Cerdà Plan and to the autonomous piece. Six homes per floor articulated by a zig-zag corridor that joins the two vertical circulation cores and projects community space and light outwards. The houses are equipped with intermediate spaces that are obtained based on a crossing of the different planes of the façade, in which the sliding shutters are distributed on the inside and outside, thus maintaining privacy and light control but at the same time helping to achieve open spaces that connect the outside and the inside, making the separation panels of the homes unnecessary. The configuration of the building allows for a wide variety of typologies. This versatility is reflected in the appearance of development homes on one floor, with 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms. The volume is defined by the treatment of the outer skin. Black-painted steel ribs shape the envelope of the building, while the braiding of the sliding metal lamellas and the inner plane of glass along the entire perimeter of the façade are resolved. The areas of skin fracture only occur in the spaces occupied by the stairs.
Plaça de Lesseps Apartment Building

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Lucía Ferrater Arquer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Xavier Martí Galí

The building volume is part of one of the new metropolitan plans of the city of Barcelona along with the opening of a new street and the widening of another. The volumetric proposal of this building is solved in an organic way by dividing the building into two parts separated by a free space between the blocks. This decision allows to optimise the passage with eight-meter-deep lights in its corresponding façade and to ventilate all the rooms to the outside. The fit of the building in the free space between blocks in the longitudinal direction allows a turn to the chamfer that collects the double façade of the building, emphasising the volumetric fracture, and thus lightening the frontality of the building. In this way, verticality is again achieved with an organic image of a bicephalous building. On the ground floor, access to the premises also takes place from the space between the two blocks and also from the streets. The car park is distributed in three basements occupying 100% of the gauge and is accessed through a ramp located next to the dividing wall with access to Riera de Vallcarca Street, which is the lowest point of the site. The accesses to the houses are made through four gates located two by two in the North and South façades respectively. The façades offer a set of fixed shutters and metal sliding windows that open and close the terraces and allow a better integration of the interior and exterior spaces that dim the natural light. The shutters are made up of stainless-steel uprights and pearl grey lacquered tubular crosspieces and are framed by thin steel handrails forming a grid where the verticals set a rhythm and the horizontal ones sharpen the edges of the slab. These lattice façade plans, together with the glass interior plan, are woven around its perimeter, creating interstitial spaces, places of transition between the city and inhabited interior space, a legacy of the Mediterranean architecture of Coderch. The building, together with the Joan Fuster Library, stands as an icon of the new Lesseps Square.
Passeig de Gràcia 99 Apartment Building

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Lucía Ferrater Arquer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The project proposal consists of carrying out a comprehensive rehabilitation of a building located at the intersection of Passeig de Gràcia with Rosselló Street in the Eixample. The building was intended for offices, and it is proposed to change its use to housing on the upper floors and commercial premises on the ground floor and mezzanine. The floor plan is organised into apartments of 60 and 100 m2, with one and two bedrooms with open spaces, kitchens incorporated at the end, mobile panels and a small intermediate space with different filters that separates the house from the street. The chamfered apartments adopt geometries in accordance with their situation. Such rehabilitation involves the demolition and new construction of the façade - maintaining only the current forged structure as well as new vertical cores of communication and roofs - cutting the existing overhangs so that the resulting façade is a sum of different skins 50% opaque and 50% glass, as is mandatory in the Eixample, alternated by layers that can slide, allowing combinations of natural light for the floors and great formal dynamism of the façade. A 5 mm translucent marble in the outermost skin that has the effect of letting light through during the day and during the night through strategic lighting with LEDs, acts as the principal source of light.
Rehabilitació de la Casa-Estudi Coderch

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri
EU Mies Award

Nominated

House for a Photographer II
Mediapro Building

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Patrick Genard & Asociados, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Patrick Genard, Xavier Martí Galí

The building is the first piece of a sequence that ends in the Agbar tower. In this context, it turns its head and faces the Diagonal in such a way that it turns the casual factor of the foreshortening into a respectful façade aligned with the great avenue. In the first four floors, the building is perforated to allow Bolivia street to reach the end and focus the urban perspective. On the upper floors, it looks diagonally for the upper edge of the tower to generate an interaction between the two alignments that produces a dynamic game of shadows. The low body or plinth penetrates under the tower and, with its transparent façade, produces a new public space, a triangular square. The office tower offers great flexibility of use thanks to diaphanous floor plans that derive from the absence of pillars or intermediate structures. A single and repeated window, developed in continuity on all the façades, offers good lighting and views, as well as a great versatility of interior distribution. Audiovisual production and teaching in the lower body and business management in the tower constitute a programmatic unit. The structural skeleton becomes the final form of the building because the coincidence between the supporting structure and the façade is achieved. The fusion of a structural membrane or diaphragm with the post-tensioned slabs allows large spans as well as giving rigidity to the whole. The lattice of pillars and the slabs allow the pillar-forge assembly to be considered as if it were large Vierendel beams.
Extension of Barcelona's Botanical Garden

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Núria Ayala, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The current program of uses envisages a substantial expansion of the Germplasm Bank, which represents a key piece in the Garden's conservation programs and the role it must assume in relation to the conservation of Catalan wild flora in the near future. The best and most logical solution seems to be the coverage of the unloading docks of the Garden maintenance building that we call Northern Semicircle, which is currently used for storage. This solution is possible from the enabling of the spaces for piling up material, substrates and machinery at the southern end of the Garden. It is proposed to cover the current unloading docks in such a way that an entire level is enabled, with the exception of the one located on the far right, since according to the elevations extracted from the last topographical survey by means of a small slope executed at the level of the lower path, it is possible to split the plant and thus locate a new space for a public use of the Garden. The incorporation of female staff in the maintenance tasks of the botanical garden made the forecasts that were established at the time in relation to the hygienic and work facilities insufficient. It was convenient to segregate a space for showers and changing rooms larger than the current one to separate the changing rooms from the sanitary ones. The coverage proposed there, proposed at the time in anticipation of the growth of the Garden's needs, seems uncomplicated since part of the screens and the foundation are pre-existing. Finally, other improvements are proposed for users in the use of the maneuvering and work yard such as, on the one hand, the paving of a perimeter concrete sidewalk in the previous circle and, on the other hand, the protection of the incident solar from the interior of the offices through a pergola, which also serves to travel from one space to the other without getting wet in case of rain.
Line 4 Metro Station: Llucmajor

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Lucía Ferrater Arquer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The Llucmajor station remodeling project essentially tries to get the most out of its spaces by connecting them to each other, removing barriers, both traffic and vision, and emphasising the height that the platforms and tracks already have, to thus enlarging and dignifying the station. The project basically opts for the use of a single material, terrazzo, and a single colour, white, as a covering for all the facings in all areas of the station. Only in ceilings and some specific facings steel will be chosen, vitrified in vertical faces and galvanised in ceilings, which will help to close these spaces to achieve permeable ceilings with a feeling of dynamism and luminosity.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Architecture

Terminal 2B Intermodal Building at Barcelona Airport
New Corporate Headquarters of GISA and FGC

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Núria Ayala, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

In one of the main accesses of Barcelona, integrated into the operation of covering the tracks of the Generalitat de Catalunya Railways and the conversion of the old workshops, a tablet appears, resulting from the intersection of the plots of the urban fabrics of the neighbourhoods of Sarrià and Tres Torres together with Via Augusta; thus generating a large public space, which in the future will resolve the difference in level between the two neighbourhoods as a hinge. The set of buildings of the Corporate Headquarters of GISA and FGC emerges at the intersection of Via Augusta with Vergòs and Cardenal de Sentmenat Streets which, despite the restrictiveness of the planning with a specific marked volume, are the result of an integration urban task, giving them the typical character of institutional buildings: emblematic, and at the same time friendly and functional. The functional program is resolved through diaphanous plants oriented towards the resulting public space between both buildings and offices on the outer perimeters. The façade modulation is very elaborate in order to make the interior layout more flexible and versatile. A meticulous study of the details, with very careful construction solutions, solves the entire outer skin with a single extruded anodised aluminum module.
AA House

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The house responds to some basic geometric rules which are so simple that the power of the essence of the project lies in them. An orthogonal net of 7x7m on which the diagonals are superimposed, building the basis on which the composition of the project rests in the form of a musical stave. The diagonals at 45º are the generators of the expansions of the roof, skylights in some cases and double floors in others, generating an artificial topography that floats over the natural topography of the land. In this way, the programme is developed on the garden-level floor in a direct indoor-outdoor relationship, where rooms, lounges, library, dining rooms, kitchen, main room and guest pavilion are located - all of them visually linked through long perspectives cut by glass. Vertically, there are specific relationships between the main floor and the lower floor and the mezzanines, always responding to programme requirements and thus closing the three-dimensional continuity of the building. These areas of the lower floor are spaces serving the main programme such as: cellar, directly connected to the dining room; archive-video library, connected to the library; wardrobe, extension of the main room; service house, with direct access to the kitchen area. Lofts are reserved for intimate spaces in direct relation to the surrounding landscape. The composition is completed with an unexpected access through a patio in very dark tones that will contrast with the brightness of the rest of the house. The project materialises as an extensive stone roof with specific episodes of contact with the ground, leaving the rest of the perimeter to light and transparent materials: large windows with metal joinery screened at specific points in the programme.
Roca Barcelona Gallery

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Borja Ferrater Arquer, Lucía Ferrater Arquer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

Already in the first steps for the conception of the institutional headquarters of ROCA or Roca Barcelona Gallery, the architectural project is understood as a tool for the dissemination of a brand and a company. The building is planned based on the communication strategy, another way to spread the values, history and challenges of the company and a transmission channel to attract the interest of the public towards the values, the product, the projects and concerns of a company with more than 80 years of history such as Roca. The commission envisages the realization of a complex program in which the institutional headquarters, a museum of the brand and a platform for events of a social nature and from the business world mix and coexist. The architectural project was based on two essential ideas. Its shape and external appearance and the experience of the space lived inside. The building, surrounded by multiple taller buildings, aims to show itself to the city by understanding its own scale. Due to its urban context, the building is surrounded by the adjacent volumes and is distinguished by its smaller scale and its purity of form. Without resorting to the speculative forms typical of an architecture that seeks to realise itself through the show, the building, while discreet and elegant, manages to differentiate itself from any other. As the main objective, we researched and worked to conceive a façade that, being observed with a minimum of attention, would not leave anybody indifferent and would try to arouse curiosity. Also, from the beginning, the possibility of creating a "skin" for the building that could perhaps offer a showy effect towards the outside, but which on the other hand had no relationship or apparent consequence to the building’s interior, was given up. It was sought, therefore, to work as much as possible under these premises. Finally, after testing different possibilities, we came up with a solution for the façade based on the arrangement of a single material, the succession of multiple glasses arranged perpendicular to the axis of the façade. Thus, based on tests and prototypes, we were able to verify how new effects such as diffraction, reflection and refraction of light are produced, resulting in the distortion, translation and superimposition of the image across the façade. It was the light, both natural during the day and artificial at night, which then became the protagonist. Thus, we obtained a completely ambiguous façade that was shown both as an element of solid character by day and liquid by night, both heavy and light, both rough and smooth and in which it is sometimes difficult to recognise if its character is transparent, translucent or opaque. Thus, from the outside, when we look inside the building, the façade offers us an ambiguous (distorted) view of its interior, making it necessary to enter in order to really discover it; once inside, if we look outside, towards the city, we will observe a whole series of visual effects as if it were a game, where nothing is really where it should be. Some light rays pass through in a straight line while others are reflected the other way around, producing something similar to an image overlay. Others, at the same time, diffract to show themselves in all the colours of the rainbow. From the inside, we observe streets where there were none before, buildings are duplicated, and we see pedestrians walking by thinking they are where we see them but, in reality, they are in a different physical place. Our objective was met since we were looking for the realisation of a façade that, whenever looked at carefully, offered a plausible but subtle prescriptive effect at the same time. Just as a building projected outwards is conceived, a world, a space and a unique atmosphere are sought inside. Once inside, through the use of light, audiovisuals, materials and exhibition elements, an attempt has been made to generate an interior space very different from a usual exhibition space, where the visitor lives an intense and unique experience with the building. The interior space, therefore, is conceived as a personal and sensory experience in which the user or visitor interacts with the building thanks to presence detectors, directional speakers, light changes, projections, projected characters that interact with visitors and plasma screens that project moving objects. At the same time, all these elements are inserted as if floating in an indivisible and continuous space. The application of a slightly reflective and experimental pavement made of ceramic, a false ceiling in stainless steel and the walls of foam tetrahedrons, make up the three main materials in its interior. All of them are continuous materials: three planes that due to their condition of continuity recreate a weightless space, marking the horizontality and without spatial or formal references turning the physical space into a sort of virtual space. The technology applied to construction, to audiovisuals and to the way of explaining the brand and its product, are essential to convey the commitment that the company has to its future. The project for Roca Barcelona Gallery echoes the most advanced technologies in terms of lighting, materials such as ceramics, glass and steel. For all this, it has been necessary for ROCA and the OAB architecture team (Borja, Lucía and Carlos Ferrater) to have another team of experts in different fields such as communication, construction, lighting, audiovisuals and many other specialists of excellence who have made the creation of a flagship building and emblem of their brand possible.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Juan Trias de Bes, Patricia Urquiola Hidalgo

The hotel is located in the former headquarters of Banc de Sabadell. This refurbishment maintains the original building as a memory of a time when Passeig de Gràcia was, exclusively, home to local banks and businesses, with a very different character to the one it has today. The original building was built in 1955 and is the work of the architect Galíndez, a regular collaborator of the bank. It has a granite and fig stone façade which is very hard, strictly symmetrical and with eight heights in the central body. This façade has been well restored, with new windows suitable for the new use as a luxury hotel. Only the plinth has been affected. With only three operations, the building has been able to accommodate the new program and, in addition, improve the relationship with Passeig de Gràcia and the fit with the city. The first is the plinth. A porch with shops and central access is defined by a sloping walkway that replaces the original imperial staircase. The reception is located on the mezzanine, at the bottom of the lot. The access road is completely public. The second is a beautiful atrium at the full height of the building, which facilitates the overall perception, organises the room floors, illuminates the entrance walkway and creates a spectacular access. The third consists of a completely new façade that overlooks the inner courtyard of the block, opening onto a garden designed by Bet Figueras. The interiors, created in collaboration with Patricia Urquiola, have a calligraphic, delicate, sensitive design that plays with the nuance of the lights and the sensuality of the spaces. The white colour, the indirect and nuanced lights, the shutters, the warm furniture by contrast are the leitmotif of all the building’s spaces, with several public and visitable parts.
Evangelical Church

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Lucía Ferrater Arquer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

After twelve years of searching for a plot of land, the Evangelical Church of Terrassa, an institution almost a century old in the city, finds its place in the Can Tusell neighbourhood facing Avinguda Béjar, one of the main streets of access to the city and communication with the industrial area. The building, which occupies a third of the plot and is located in its lowest part with access from Avinguda Béjar, combines specifically religious uses (it holds worship every Sunday morning) with social uses resulting from an agreement with the City Council. The complex manifests itself as a large monolithic base that gradually decreases in height due to the slope of the land formed by steel plates in the form of cladding and fence on which two bodies are suspended. In a central and larger position, a modulated cube with edges rises, covered with a new material of recycled aluminum, pressed and injected and which, thanks to its brightness, gives an emblematic character to the piece that houses its interior - the room for worship. The other body of lower height and close to Carrer Tramuntana is suspended and stands out. In this case, the edges frame corrugated and perforated aluminum planes that act as a lattice like a second skin for the nursery programme. While the façade on Avinguda Béjar presents itself as a tense, rigorous and continuous plan that hides its access, the two side façades show its friendlier side where the vegetation masks a fence that acts as a second façade. This makes the plane of the glass retract with respect to the limit of the plot and all the perimeter spaces enjoy light and ventilation, as well as privacy and security. Since the nursery is accessed via a higher and separate level, the functional programme, both religious and social, takes place all on the ground floor with the exception of a loft suspended over the double space of the worship hall. A reception area allows passage and distributes the administration area on one side and, on the other, a corridor facilitates access to twelve classrooms and the worship room at the front, the central piece that organises the entire programme of needs around it. The worship room is oriented perpendicular to the axis of access so that thanks to a system of movable partitions they establish a direct relationship with the adjacent spaces which in turn are related to the outside through a courtyard. While the compositional criteria of the interior respond to functional criteria, the exteriors respond to the situation, the orientation and, above all, to the desire to be a discreet and contained building from a short distance but at the same time a reference piece of evangelical worship from the farthest distance.
F3 House

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Lucía Ferrater Arquer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The house is located on a rectangular urban plot and is born from a grid that modulates the structure both in plan and in volume. It is separated from the ground, perceiving it as a suspended body in which the pillars and the gables can be seen on the outside, delimiting the façade planes and forming the volumes. The placement of the building close to the street allows a garden area with a swimming pool to be freed towards the interior of the block. The volumes are articulated according to the needs of the program and the configuration of the interior space to emphasise the relationship with the exterior spaces, which is the objective of the project. Each area of the house is extended with an outdoor garden space, generating a perimeter route in which the vegetation is the protagonist; thus, visually entering the interior spaces. The structural profiles delimit and stress the façade planes that are composed of solids and voids brought to the limit of the perimeter. This game of the façades and the volume allows the light to fall in an intentional way on the interior, receiving a game of changing lights and shadows throughout the day. The use of white limestone in the blind facings and the large glass windows made by Vitrocsa are solved with a structure in minimal enclosures that provide it with a light character.
Barcelona World Race Interpretation Centre

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Jordi Carbonell, Lucía Ferrater Arquer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The tugboat building, a master builder's construction, dates from the beginning of the 20th century and for years has endured low-quality renovations. That is why the proposed refurbishment, added to the fact that it is located at the end of a front of buildings with the same port colonial character, proposes a reconstruction operation of its central part (the most damaged structure), arrangement of the lateral towers and only raises a new cover, where the maximum height is maintained and collects a large skylight in its upper crowning as well as large windows on both sides of the promenade and the port. The two-storey building houses a shop, a showroom and bathrooms on the ground floor, while on the upper floor there is the office, warehouse, meeting room and a large multi-purpose room for to the different institutional acts. The refurbishment of the building is understood from the point of view of the set of buildings that follow on this same front, all of them subject to a subsequent one that will be carried out in the port of Barcelona. The solution of the roof of the central body, without varying the height or the configuration of the roof with two gables, responds to an idea of a rib through which natural light penetrates and is reflected during the day while at night it is projected as a big lighthouse. Constructively, a system of panels for the façade, beams, slabs and pilasters, all prefabricated, make up the central body reconstructed faithfully to the pre-existing structure. Above this a structure in the form of ribs guided by steel plates rises, and between which the glass surface folds allowing the entry of vertical and zenithal light. The rigorously reformed lateral towers adapt with their voids and interior spaces to the new program. Finally, the broken white melts throughout the building so that only the game of reflections, lights and shadows of the new intervention takes the spotlight.
FAD Award

Shortlisted. Category: Interior Design

Roca Barcelona Gallery
Viladoms Holiday Camp Buildings

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Núria Ayala, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

Commissioned by the NGO Fundació Catalana de l'Esplai, we are working on several projects for summer camps in different areas of Catalonia, such as Castellbell i el Vilar, Navès and Sant Joan de les Abadesses, based on the criteria of sustainability, durability, adaptability and austerity that characterise the buildings we have made for them. The main premises taken into account when designing the new hostel were the following: - Economically sustainable project. The cost could not exceed 450 €/m² built, including urbanisation. - Multifunctional project. With more than 25 years of experience managing nature schools, the Foundation determines that the viability of a facility of these characteristics must have great versatility. Aspects such as the capacity of the rooms, the layout, the bathrooms, the versatility of the activity rooms and the accessibility of all the spaces. - A project that respects the environment. As an implicit part of the Foundation's educational project and with the experience acquired in a building such as the CENTRE ESPLAI, the construction of this new nature school should have energy saving systems. In the first of the projects, the proposal for implementation is based on the urban planning need not to exceed the gauge of the pre-existing buildings – ‘L’ shaped barracks in a very precarious state of health and hygiene. The new facility will consist of three distinct areas: service building, nature classrooms and dormitory area. The services building will house the dining room, kitchen, storeroom and a reception area and information point. The dining room will have capacity for almost 100 diners and will be located in a single room, where the different groups staying at the hostel will find a meeting and relationship space. In the building next to the dining room there will be three nature classrooms with a capacity for 30 people each. The proposal is for system units in which the ratio between useful and built surface area increases because the communications between them are produced from the exterior space, avoiding the conventional typologies of holiday camp houses that respond to the comb-shaped scheme -circulations from which hang batteries of bedrooms with communal bathrooms. This modular layout will permit, for example, housing different groups within the same installation and allowing them to maintain a certain degree of privacy inside their hut. The volumetric fragmentation into small autonomous units makes it possible to graduate the number of users and minimise maintenance and surveillance costs, while at the same time making it possible to configure a system with the entire colony. The unit is proposed as a reference, archetype and image of the imaginary world of childhood - small houses, village, relationship with the forest, paths and nature - and, in the future, it will allow for easy extension or expansion of the system itself. The adapted exterior routes and the passages between the different volumes allow circulation between them, grouping the entrances and facilitating control by the monitors. We propose three different types of rooms, with groups of 4, 6 or 8 children, with the possibility of developing them on one or two levels depending on the body, resulting in a total capacity of 90 places. The upper space and the volume of air it contains acquire enormous importance given the occupation of the living areas. It also favours the incorporation of acoustic control and artificial lighting on the suspended fabric formed by white tubular profiles. The simplicity of the materials used has allowed for great economy in the execution, as well as in subsequent maintenance. The interiors are made of painted fair-faced concrete block, fine-grained polished concrete floors, 20 cm wide windows inserted in 2 mm thick matt stainless steel frames with painted shutters incorporated to darken the interior and exposed chained domes that generate a warm shade of interior light. The location of the sets of windows in the vertical walls allows perfect cross ventilation, regardless of the prevailing wind in each case. For the exteriors, the unity of the material is emphasised – façades and roofs, both of living cells and public buildings, respond to the Coteterm system by Parex, a flexible, self-cleaning stucco that allows for continuity of insulation and waterproofing treatment around the perimeter. The external routes are differentiated into two types of paving: textured concrete slabs for pedestrians and scraped concrete for road traffic. Given the final solution of the proposal, the spectrum of users is widened, as it will not only be able to host summer camps and camps for schoolchildren, but also families and groups will be able to use the facility all year round.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Architecture

Viladoms Holiday Camp Buildings
FAD Award

Shortlisted. Category: Architecture

Evangelical Church
Mostres d'Arquitectura (Barcelona)

Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Edificis d'Ús No Residencial de Promoció Privada

Mediapro Building
Mostres d'Arquitectura (Barcelona)

Shortlisted. Category: Edificis d'Habitatges Plurifamiliars de Promoció Privada

Plaça de Lesseps Apartment Building
L9 South Metro Stations: Aeroport T1 and Aeroport T2

FSC Infraestructuras, Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Josep Maria Casadevall i Márquez, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Ramon Sanabria i Boix

The two metro stations, L9 Aeroport T1 and Aeroport T2, linked to terminals T1 and T2, have the same formal and environmental characteristics given their proximity and their link with the multimodal building, made by the same authors. The basic characteristics of the public transport elements of the infrastructures have to do with the clarity of flows and organisation. Airports, railway or metro stations must respond clearly and resoundingly to the clarity of routes and functional rationality. In our case, the use of the same materials (aluminum, retro-projected walls, flush ceiling, etc.) want to participate in the same linguistic code as the architectures that support them. This is to make the user understand that when he arrives at the airport terminal stations (T1 and T2) he will recognise the desired unity by its atmosphere and materials. This formal and compositional unity causes an understandable and clear reading of the spaces and routes, which is ultimately what is intended with this type of infrastructure.
Extension of the Maintenance Building of Barcelona's Botanical Garden

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Núria Ayala, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

Given the requirements from the Barcelona Botanic Garden for the expansion of the Germplasm Bank and a reorganisation of the work spaces, we plan to rationalise the uses of the current offices and colonise the northern semicircle (built on the irrigation water tank). In this way, we preserve the current footprint of the circular route in the landscape around the maneuvering area. The current program of uses envisages a substantial expansion of the germplasm bank, a key piece in the conservation programs of the garden and in the role it will play in relation to the conservation of Catalan wild flora in the near future. The best and most logical solution seems to be to cover the unloading docks of the Garden’s maintenance building, what we call northern semicircle, currently used for storage. This solution has been possible since spaces were created for the storage of materials, substrates and machinery at the southern end of the Garden. It is proposed to cover the current unloading docks in such a way that an entire level is enabled, except for the one located on the far right, given that, according to the levels extracted from the last topographical study, they allow through a small unevenness executed in the level of the lower path, split the plant and thus locate a new space for public use in the Garden. The inclusion of female personnel in the maintenance tasks of the botanical garden made the forecasts that were established at the time in terms of hygienic and work facilities insufficient. It was convenient to segregate a space for showers and changing rooms larger than the current one, in which the changing rooms were separated from the sanitary ones. The coverage that is proposed was already proposed at the time in anticipation of the growth of the needs of the Garden, which is why carrying out the work to adapt the building of the northern semicircle seems not very complex, given that part of the screens and of the foundation are pre-existing. On the other hand, we propose other improvements for users in the use of the maneuvering and work yard, which are to pave a concrete sidewalk in the inner circle and to protect the offices from solar incidence through a pergola, so that you can move from one space to another without getting wet in the event of rain.
Mostres d'Arquitectura (Barcelona)

Shortlisted. Category: Edificis amb Ús No Residencial. Inclou Edificis de Nova Planta de Promoció Pública

L9 South Metro Stations: Aeroport T1 and Aeroport T2
Pacificació del Front Marítim de L’Escala

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

La reforma del front marítim sorgeix de la idea de donar valor als atributs que, de forma natural, posseeix la localitat de L’Escala: la seva geografia única, el Cap de Norfeu, la badia de Roses, les muntanyes al fons amb la presència del Canigó, el poble de Sant Martí d’Empúries, les platges, les ruïnes de l’antiga ciutat Emporium i la visió propera de la façana marítima, la platja amb la roca del Cargol, el Port d’En Perris i el passeig marítim. Tot això configura un dels amfiteatres naturals més bells del món. El projecte cerca restituir la tradició i la cultura mil·lenària d’una localitat marítima de gran personalitat i caràcter. El projecte assoleix, remarca i potencia tots aquests atributs geogràfics, naturals i històrics treballant per absència, eliminant tots aquells elements que distorsionen la qualitat del lloc.
257 Rosselló Housing Building

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Lucía Ferrater Arquer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

The project was about transforming an office building into a new residential one. The building had been designed by the architect Roberto Terradas Via in 1962, and it was considered a Site of Urban Interest with protection level C in the Barcelona Heritage catalog. After consultations with the author's children and with the need to adapt it to current regulations and the criteria of the technical code, the rehabilitation of this modern heritage is done with great respect towards the original proposal. Respecting the compositional criteria of the façade on Rosselló Street and the façade in the Palau Robert gardens, materials such as white limestone, grey granite and coloured ceramics are restored, incorporating locksmithing and new steel joinery. Preserving the original trace, a set of pivoting windows with a vertical axis with a glass sill is created that incorporates adjustable shutters with horizontal slats inside its glass, solving issues of security, tightness, ventilation, insolation and insulation, as well as the cleaning of the glass from the inside thanks to the three opening positions of the window, 10, 30, 90 cm. The closure of the ground floor respects the original recessed solution by adapting it to the new use of the building, emphasising the riveted iron pillar, reconstructing the old canopy and creating a new lobby with a double scope of access. The common spaces, such as the hall, landings and interior patio, are treated with period materials such as paving stones, ceramics, wood and iron respecting the formal ideology of the Roberto Terradas Via project. Inside the flats, the proposed distribution allows a certain flexibility and the view from the main area of the unitary set of the four windows. The penthouses, porches and spaces between terraces, as well as the community technical installations, are arranged following a criteria of respect for the old building and the environment.
Fernando Poo 42 Apartment Building

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Alberto Peñín

Located in Poblenou’s old urban fabric, at a point of transition between the historic axis of Maria Agulló, the Rambla de Poblenou and the beach which is nearby, the project meets this dual condition. On the one hand, on Fernando Poo Street, the traditional typology of the house is recovered, single-storey and two-storey houses that express their individuality on the street. On the other, the corner, empty but drawn on the edges and cut into the sky, flows into the city of Barcelona with its animated flows of inhabitants and visitors who run towards the beach. In Sant Francesc Street, the typological solution insists on the animation of the lower floors as a founding element of the social control of the city. A simple access system avoids elevators and extends the street towards the interior of the homes and common spaces. The collective builds the city and organises pass-through housing on the ground floor and duplexes on the first floor. The corner is resolved with a T-shaped house that opens onto the interior courtyard and a void that proposes a new interruption to Fernando Poo Street. The effect of the corner thus benefits three homes and offers an access space that can be colonised by its inhabitants. In all cases, the mattress of the small access courtyards protected with low-height locks gives thickness to the line between what is public and what is private and contributes to an energy strategy that, thanks to the insulation from the outside (SATE) and aerothermia, achieves maximum efficiency. The voids on the first floor overcome their functional condition to acquire the scale of the street through large openings and corridors. This border between the domestic and the overall vision is even more diluted inside the operation, where the configuration of the car park allows the planting of indigenous port trees. The good orientation of the houses, to the sun and to the sea, reveals a small garden recess in the heart of the city. The 12 houses are anchored in Poblenou’s urban tradition and manifest this through a small intervention on their ground floor walls that recalls the names of their history. [La Granota . Trofeu Mans . La França Xica . El tio Che . Pa amb vi i sucre . L’Aliança . Ateneu Colón . Joncar . Teneria Barcelonesa . Ca l’Aranyó. El Sabre de Plata...]
Hermanos Torres Restaurant-Cuisine

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Borja Ferrater Arquer, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

Hermanos Torres Cuisine is a project born from the desire to generate a new experience in relation to the world of cooking and catering. A new space that allows us to live a new culinary experience. Continent and content come together for a unique experience. THE SPACE From the beginning, Sergio and Javier Torres defined in a few words what they were looking for: "more than a restaurant with a kitchen, we would like to create a kitchen with a restaurant". With this clear and ambitious premise and with the acquisition of an old industrial building of almost 800 m2, which had to be completely renovated, the project began. At the spatial level, the project was born, therefore, with the desire to erase or dilute some dividing lines between the different spaces that make up a traditional restaurant. Gradually, over time, the kitchen space has acquired a certain prominence in some of the latest avant-garde restaurants. Initially, windows that showed the interior of the kitchen through a glass were opened. On other occasions the kitchen was opened by placing it at the back of the restaurant, behind a bar, and even in some cases, as in the case of the Dos Cielos Restaurant (former restaurant of the Torres brothers), the restaurant through the kitchen. Exclusive tables have also been included in some restaurants so that a few people can eat in the same kitchen. However, this time, an even more radical leap is made, placing the kitchen not only as the central element of the intervention, but also as an enveloping element. The restaurant is the kitchen. By placing the kitchen at the epicentre of the restaurant, the old concept of the café-theater resurfaces, places where the diner enjoys a show while having dinner. But here the show will consist of the same preparation of the dishes to be tasted. In addition, thanks to the fact that he has chosen an industrial building as a large container, the experience of living a "performance" yourself is emphasised. It feels like being on a big ship, being on a TV set or in a modern theatre. It was therefore a matter of configuring and exalting these properties of the original space in such a way that a further step could be taken in the experience of haute cuisine. The diner participates and empathises with the Chef, while it is a direct witness to the creative act that is taking place. And not only is it a witness, but it also ends up becoming the protagonist of the experience when the dish arrives at the table. Having diluted the lines that physically separate the space, the two chefs, Sergio and Javier, along with second chefs, chefs, waiters and assistant cooks, move the space naturally and without barriers between stoves and tables. A space of no more than two meters, free of any physical or visual obstacles. This is what the brothers were looking for, to be able to establish a direct relationship with their customers. At the same time, the spectator, diner and protagonist (depending on each moment) not only has a central stage that are of the "three pianos" (place where the last steps of each dish are elaborated and culminated), but also it is surrounded by kitchens and spaces related to the experience you are living. In three of the faces that surround the central space is the wine cellar, the pastry shop and the 3 cooking kitchens (Meats, Fish and Fruits-vegetables), plus you can also see the space of research and development behind a glass, in which the brothers carry out their experiments and tests to achieve new creations. Work has been done to make the kitchens work like clockwork, and to be as well-equipped as possible, always giving priority to functional aspects so as not to diminish their proper functioning. Therefore, there is a subsequent circulation, which manages to communicate all the spaces: preparation and production kitchens and their respective cameras as well as the spaces for staff, dining room, locker rooms, training room, etc. So, despite the novelty of the distribution, the space has been organised in a consistent and effective way. Another example would be to respect the classic concept of atrium represented in the Bar area. That is, when we enter and access the large industrial building, we have a first filter space that allows us to save the surprise, and then discover the large space of the main dining room. So, next to the cloakroom, the Bar becomes an entrance hall. Returning to the concept of foyer in a concert hall: before the show, the bartender, a prestigious mixologist, will prepare a cocktail, a first aperitif, which introduces us to the atmosphere of the industrial unit, the perfect opening act before the experience that awaits us on the other side of the cellar. MATERIALITY Once the organisation of the space has been defined, an element of great importance ensures that the culinary experience takes place with the dose of comfort and convenience it deserves. To try to soften the undeniable fact that we will be eating in an industrial unit, a series of materials are introduced that soften and even produce a kind of ambiguity between being initially in a cold space of large proportions versus a pleasant space, warm and welcoming. Tables with tablecloths, upholstered chairs and even the presence of a rug will soften and provide comfort, as well as help control the acoustics of the room. However, we have tried to make the decorative interventions as minimal as possible. Fleeing the recent trend and the increasingly popular fashion of refilling and filling spaces with objects, textiles and formal abundance that gives place to a baroque minimalism or new kitsch that can only confuse the customer and not leave clear what is authentic and what is a "lie" (fake). This is exactly the opposite. To erase the unnecessary, not to confuse and not allow it to dominate the superfluous, but the truly important. The floor, thanks to the collaboration of the Roca company, is ceramic. As it should be, this has always been the traditional cuisine of a lifetime, just like the one where the brothers cooked as children with their grandmother Catalina. This is a special format piece designed specifically for the Restaurant. A continuous floor, therefore using the same material for all areas, the main ones and the ones for the staff. It was essential to understand the unitary nature of the intervention. We decided that the bathrooms would be the exception to the rule: Iroko wood is introduced in the bathrooms, which gives them great comfort. An atmosphere contrary to that of the central space is sought, more typical of a ship's cabin than of a large industrial building. The protagonists will always be the diner, the cook and the dishes. Regarding the rest, the less you notice and see, the better, and having the minimum concessions. To do this, we have a single large decorative element: a large black and gold curtain that occupies an entire side wall and is backlit, magically playing with light. Light, as an indispensable ingredient in architecture, will be what we will talk about below. THE LIGHT In this obsession with eliminating the superfluous and the unnecessary, the presence of the color black in practically all the restaurant appears strongly. Black emerges as a counterpoint to the white of the dishes, tablecloths and chefs' uniforms, which acquire their prominence thanks to wrapping them all with an indefinite matte black space. The colour black also allows us to do the same with light as with the decoration. Thanks to him we will be able to illuminate what interests us. The rest will be lost in the vastness of the industrial unit. Just like in a theatre or a concert hall where what lights up is the stage, the actors or the musicians. From here, a magical game begins thanks to the presence of glass that produces reflections, the darkness of the room and the presence of some mysterious hanging lights, giving rise to what the brothers have ended up defining as the ship of your dreams. The cellar is used to create a subtle light box, although not too bright (for obvious reasons of wine treatment). The glass box of the cellar is dressed in virgin vine. This warm light box with a golden effect helps to create a cozy atmosphere in both the bar and the main room. For the lighting of the room, we worked with the designer Pete Sans in the creation of what we call "clouds", lights that precisely sought to meet several objectives: the light, through the presence of hundreds or thousands of lights evokes a starry space, and thanks to the reflections in the glass of the room or in the skylights, a magical multiplier effect is produced. The lights are strategically placed at a constant height of 2.55 m, which allows you to build an imaginary or virtual roof, in which everything above (the ship reaches 7.5 m on its ridge) when painted black, it seems to fade or disappear. In this way, the ceiling is not clearly visible, only intuited. At the same time, the lights begin to generate reflections in all the windows of the restaurant and what before could be perceived as a finite space becomes ambiguous and undefined. The immensity of the black and the multiplied lights, the golden curtain with a dark background, the illuminated cellar where the bottles can be seen, the translucent skylights... All this makes the limits of the space confusing, while a dreamlike space is generated. THRESHOLD And we will finish at the beginning: the front door and the façade, which we knew had to become a threshold that separates the space of the imaginary from the urban reality of the Les Corts neighbourhood in Barcelona. To do this, after much deliberation and thinking about what we should do, we decided to respect the interior shape of the nave, a gabled roof, and therefore rescue the formal archetype of a house. Secondly, the brothers conveyed to us the importance of the 4 seasons of the year, working with seasonal produce. That’s why we decided that the best way to represent this idea would be through nature. Specifically, around a forest and how the seasons transform it. Carlos had been following the works of the painter and muralist Regina Saura for years, and in some of her recent exhibitions she had focused on the representation of trees and forests. So we asked her to participate in the project and execute a work of art on the façade around the idea of a forest. We believe that Regina Saura's façade manages to convey the message of seasonality from the different shades of leaves (winter, summer, autumn and spring colours), and at the same time it allows the contrast with the reality of the urban context. We can understand the act of entering the Hermanos Torres Kitchen in two ways, crossing a forest in the city or accessing their new home in the forest. In any case, the façade is a threshold, a place where the outer space, the street, is abandoned, and which, once transferred, allows us to live almost imaginary experiences. All this thanks to the organisation of the space, the use of materials and the play of light. But above all, the interior space becomes a dream when you taste the latest creations by Sergio and Javier Torres.
312 Cartagena Housing Building

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri

This building is located to the right of the Eixample, a few metres away from the Sant Pau Hospital and Gaudí Avenue (Sagrada Familia), and has a 6.14 m façade which is 24 m deep; very common dimensions in the fabric of Barcelona because the regulations did not allow the construction of high-rise buildings (ground floor, mezzanine and 5 upper floors) on plots measuring less than 6 m. The project is solved with premises on the ground floor and mezzanine and one floor per floor up until five heights. This is a common exercise in our studio. This building reflects the experience of the mechanised carpentry in the building at 257 Rosselló Street, next to Passeig de Gràcia, organising large frames with pivot windows with a vertical and horizontal axis and a running sill in pieces of paving stones. A good lighting of the interior space is achieved thanks to these closures, as well as very effective ventilation of the rooms on the façade, while the darkening of the interior is solved by means of blinds inside the chamber, which allows the cleaning of all the façade’s windows.
FAD Award

Finalist. Category: Interior Design

Hermanos Torres Restaurant-Cuisine
Edifici Mandarin Oriental i Casa Seat

Office of Architecture in Barcelona (OAB), Núria Ayala, Carlos Ferrater i Lambarri, Xavier Martí Galí
EU Mies Award

Nominated

Edifici Mandarin Oriental i Casa Seat