Miquel Espinet i Mestre - Arquitectura Catalana .Cat

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Neichel Restaurant

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

When you enter the Neichel, you don't become aware of the decoration, the light or the sound dampening in isolation: you get the impression of a whole that breathes well-being and predicts a good meal. Nothing is strident or brusque. There is a harmony of greys and ochres, almost white greys and ochres with red dots. There are neither few nor many pieces of furniture, neither very small distances, nor "Grand Luxe" nor asceticism. Once having crossed the entrance area, with the bar painted by Maria Girona, the style will have continuity at the tables. The dim light that enters through the small garden that opens in front of the restaurant is nuanced by the thick walls lined with wood. In the other corner, the service takes place, that is, the delivery and departure of dishes from the kitchen. It is the necessary way of gastronomic activity. Once daytime is over, the restaurant seems to light up almost by magic at night. There are practically no points of light other than those presiding over each of the furniture-offices that separate the dining room from the service corridor. The kitchens are the counterpoint to so much silence and perfection. A frenetic activity is bubbling there: it is the engine of every great establishment. The Neichel restaurant won the FAD award for interior design in 1981.
FAD Award

Award-Winner / Winner (opinion). Category: Interior Design

Neichel Restaurant
Rehabilitation of Pascual i Pons Palace

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, MBM Arquitectes, Oriol Bohigas i Guardiola, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, David Mackay, Josep Maria Martorell i Codina, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

Between 1890 and 1891, the architect Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia built two adjacent palaces on lots number 2 and 4 of Passeig de Gràcia for Mr. Sebastià Pascual and for his brother-in-law D. Alexandre Pons. The obvious contact between both owners allowed Sagnier to build the two buildings with obvious organisational but, above all, stylistic connections. During the years until the start of the project, there were many works of varying significance that were carried out, leaving countless scars on the building. Despite the unfortunate state of the building, the Barcelona City Council has it listed in its catalog of buildings to preserve because of its testimonial value of Catalan modernism. Things being this way, they decided to draw up the expansion, rehabilitation and transformation project. The main features of this extensive and complex intervention were, firstly, to unify the two old palaces in a single building, the access of which is from Passeig de Gràcia. The scope of this unification is to remodel the vertical accesses, elevators and stairs, around a courtyard of light that is one of the points of greatest interest in the project. Secondly, to undertake the works to rejuvenate the constructive system of the building. Thirdly, the 5th floor is extended over the old roof, taking advantage of the opening under the barbican. The introduction of the gallery in the rencontre between the façade and the roof tends to improve the slenderness of the building. The criteria for restoring the façade are various: reintegrate the pinnacle with an orthogonal base, repair all the deteriorated elements, replace some Gothic windows that were mutilated and integrate into the configuration scheme the façades built on the old platforms of Casp Street and Ronda Universitat as of the openings on the ground floor once the commercial character of these has been consolidated. We wanted to maintain the duality between the old and modern building with the coexistence of the original hall on the ground floor, executed in Montjuic stone and stucco, with the vertical patio built with white concrete understood as a version of technological stone, and to restore the few pieces of the first floor that have managed to survive to this day. The light fixture in the old lobby was designed by Miguel Milá.
Escola Joc de la Bola

Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet
FAD Award

Award-Winner / Winner. Category: Restoration

Rehabilitation of Pascual i Pons Palace
Lleida Park Residential Complex

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

El conjunt residencial “Lleida Parc” es composa de diversos conjunts d’habitatges, cadascun d’ells de 4 a 6 habitatges adossats. Cadascun d’aquests conjunts es composen d’un aparcament conjunt i de tres plantes on desenvolupar el programa de cadascun dels habitatges.
School of Agricultural Engineers of Catalonia

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

L’edifici integra dos cossos existents i té dues façanes ben diferenciades, una de totxo vist i un altre de vidre reflectant que permet a les zones de passadissos de comunicació donar llum i vistes al exterior i crear un efecte mirall amb l’edifici existent molt evocador. Organitza per sectors ben diferenciats els diferents programes de l'Escola, alhora que potencia el més significatiu i amaga part dels edificis antigues, com un joc de veig i no veig. El que es veu és l'edifici principal sobre un fons cortina que reflecteix el paisatge. El que no es veu és la resta de edificacions que queden barrejades i embolicades pel discorrent nou edifici d'obra vista. La façana principal s'obre sobre l'extens parc fruiter, és un continu mur-cortina, com una tensa i fina pell que tanca en el seu interior els circuits de distribució. Les façanes sud i est estan tractades amb murs d'obra vista trepats per amplis finestrals amb protecció solar. Aquestes façanes corresponen a el sector aulari i de laboratoris. A l'iniciar el projecte vam tenir una constant obsessió en diferenciar el nou del vell, en aclarir l'enteniment dels nous edificis (units però no barrejats). Haurien de ser diferents en color, textura, il·luminació, fins i tot en programa i per tant en el seu ús. Per això els espais de contacte van requerir una especial delicadesa, es va tendir a la neutralitat, predomini de lluernaris, colors blancs i una gran generositat de superfícies.
Rehabilitation of the Faculty of Medicine

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

In 1907, the Clínic Hospital of Barcelona was inaugurated and, with it, the Faculty of Medicine, belonging to the University of Barcelona. With this, the old aspirations of abandoning the buildings on the Rambla dels Estudis, which housed the Faculty of Medicine on its return from Bourbon exile, due to the New Plant decree of 1716, were satisfied. The evolution of medical studies, and specifically the qualitative leap that the 1983 law meant, required an adaptation to the new demands. The main characteristic of this transformation was to create departments dedicated to research and promoting knowledge, the basis of modern universities. To some extent, these transformations have been possible thanks to the quality of the spaces, the formalisation responds to criteria of functional neutrality, which makes the transition from classrooms to laboratories very simple, although these require complex and very specific equipment. The classic outline of the modeling repertoire, in the strictest Beauxartian tradition, has been respected and even improved in some points. It must be emphasised that the grandeur of the common spaces, of a certainly attractive and ritualistic dimension, of something that exceeds the strict necessity, such as the main staircase, the great hall, the cloister or the distribution corridors, imprint a clarity and architectural grandeur that deserved to be preserved. The spatial requirements have forced us to incorporate the basement floor and the floor under the roof, apart from the increase represented by the partition of the classrooms, by means of an intermediate slab. The cores of stairs located on the sides have been relocated centrally in a space where we believe they should have been. In these points, our proposal improves the typological organisation of the classic plan. This staircase gives way to the original and the new floors, introduced through the floor slab partition of levels one and three. The way these new plants reach the façade, in order to avoid the solution of splitting the window in two, led us to make the new level depend on the old one, as if it were a duplex. Therefore, we have built interior stairs arranged parallel to the façade that resolve the vertical connections following a typological rather than a functional order. The façades are composed of windows with stone lintels and jambs, arranged in an orderly manner on a stucco base, which is why its rehabilitation was of special interest. The quality of the stone is not up to the packaging that was intended to be given to the building. It is a stone that has not completed the geological period of formation that corresponded to it, therefore, as easy to work with as it is quick to decompose, especially in the parts most exposed to inclement weather. Once the stones have been cleaned, the shape they had has been recovered, but only as a base to support a sheet of zinc, so that a more complex calligraphy than the original has been incorporated and which gives lightness to a more massive than Doric composition.
Extension of the Sala Parés Art Gallery

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

The extension of the oldest art gallery in Spain has been an extremely delicate and carefully considered architectural project. Respecting its original personality and its essence were fundamental priorities for us, but so was the transformation into a new architecture merging with the pre-existence and forming an ensemble where harmony and an atmosphere of intimacy pervade the space. The four iron pillars and the large central skylight become the protagonists around which the space is organised. Red velvet on the walls and wooden flooring in the room below are used, respecting and preserving the classic serenity of the space. The white walls and dark floor explain the contemporary part.
Conversion of the Diocesan Seminary into Headquarter of the UdL

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Ramon Maria Puig i Andreu, Antoni Ubach i Nuet
Reconstruction of the Pavilion of the Republic

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

The 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, beyond the merely sporting and urban, represented for the city the recovery of its history, which was interrupted in 1936. It has been the most important event in recent times, thanks to which the city has regained its former splendor. That is why the Olympic Stadium was renamed with the name of the martyred president, Lluís Companys. From this wish of uniting the past with the present, the idea of reconstructing the Spanish pavilion that the Republic commissioned for the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris was born. This pavilion represented an act of the Republic, already in the midst of the Civil War. Everything that the Republic represented for a large part of the citizens was expressed in it, with the participation of the most important Spanish artists, who were really relevant at an international level: Picasso with his Guernica, made expressly for the building, The Catalan peasant in revolt by Joan Miró, Montserrat by Julio González, the Mercury Fountain by Calder, and the building by Josep Lluís Sert, with the collaboration of Luis Lacasa commissioned directly by the Government of Madrid. Such a work was entrusted to us despite the little material that was available, because, due to the urgency with which it was built, an ad hoc architectural project was not carried out. We only had a few photographs, a certainly necessary material but it did not enlighten us, for example, about certain materials or colours. Knowledge of Sert's work, interpretation of the documentation found both at the Reina Sofía Art Centre in Madrid and at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, and constructive logic, were the tools we used to rebuild the pavilion. The Minister of Culture at the time, Jorge Semprún, promised that during the Games the authentic Guernica would occupy the same place on the wall as in that event. It did not happen that way and the wall was left empty. Out of respect for Picasso's work, we left the wall grey, which is the most abundant part of the painting, and Picasso's signature in white on it (we should remember that the Guernica was never signed). The project falls under the canons of GATPAC rationalism, according to the times in which it was made. It responds to a rectangle of 28.8 by 10.8 and 12 metres high. The entire building is perfectly suited to this modulation. Everyone knows the use for which the pavilion was intended as built by Josep Lluís Sert, that is, as a small showcase structured around a unidirectional itinerary, through which the programmatic content that was exhibited could be seen. It is accessed by a few steps that lead us to the patio, a Mediterranean garment par excellence, and in which countless cultural events were held. Through a ramp, combined with a staircase, the upper level is reached. This part of the building departs from the most classic canons of early rationalism and points to organic forms that shortly after Alvar Aalto rises to its own characteristic within rationalism. From the interior and always along predetermined routes, you go down until you reach the door on the first floor, from where you go outside, to go down a staircase that deposits the visitor at the end of the route. Due to its architectural characteristics, the building seemed intended for a similar use to that of the original in Paris and, consequently, it should be possible to hold art exhibitions, so our reconstruction was forced to provide it with modern installations: electrical, air conditioning, elevator and a basement, where all the machines that such updating required could be placed.
Escola EINA. Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet
UdL Polytechnic School of Informatics

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

L’edifici és format per dos cossos ben diferenciats en la seva concepció, que acullen les dues parts principals en què es divideix el programa, i alhora responen de manera diferent a les condicions urbanes del carrer Jaume II, en un cas, i de l’interior del campus, en l’altre cas. El cos que s’alinea amb el carrer assumeix la condició urbana dels diversos edificis que formen aquesta façana, que construeixen l’espai del carrer Jaume II amb grans edificacions amb separacions de 25 metres i creen un passeig rectilini que voreja el riu. El cos interior, destinat a tallers i aules especials, es relaciona amb el caràcter semirural dels orígens del lloc i presenta una volumetria orientada gràcies a una coberta corba i a la presència de grans finestrals. Tots dos cossos queden units per un espai de relació, un passeig interior vidrat i de doble alçada. L’entrada des del carrer té lloc a través d’un cos que adopta una geometria específica, independent de la resta de l’edifici, i que permet accedir immediatament a la part posterior. L’edifici dóna respostes independents a les condicions de l’exterior del campus i de l’interior, i aprofita aquesta clara discriminació per a una bona organització del programa.
Montserrat Choir School

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

Out of the group of buildings that make up Montserrat Abbey, the three located in the northernmost part were subject to different transformations to establish the new choir school. To link these buildings, we built two new staircase - one in the south wing of the monastery and the other in Torre del Clericat, which is the tallest building. These two staircases really articulate the different levels of the building. Ascending, the first two floors are occupied by formal education. On the third level we find the music school, which includes the rehearsal room, of notable proportions, as it is one and a half times the height of the room. Finally, the fourth level - at the same level as the ground floor of the third building, the former Novitiate - is dedicated to the domestic part of the Escolania, the boarding school. This part is the one that has undergone the most intervention, as we have managed to transform an old patio into a real cloister. From here, not only does the whole floor receive light and ventilation, but the new cloister is also a magnificent setting from which to contemplate the orographic profile of Montserrat. The top floor of the south wing of the Monastery is occupied by the new Novitiate, which, despite sharing the rest of the building, has the particularity of being separate so as not to intertwine the two programmes. From the outside, the intervention is remarkably respectful of the existing complex, so as not to interfere with the already recognised image of the Monastery. The top floor was built as an attic with a recast, where, on the stone wall, there is a change between the new windows and the old balconies. The roof was clad in copper, as had been done in the Basilica a few years earlier.
Communication Library and General Press Library of the UAB

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

The old campus of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona rises above the stream bed of the Can Magrans stream. The unique topography of the valley is saved by means of hypostyle structures that support the Plaça Cívica, which, rising above the riverbed, rests on the colonnade. On the west side, where the building we are describing stands, there is a retaining wall and a moat that resolve the passage between the Plaça Cívica and the pine forest, of great value. The above elements make it a unique setting among Catalan universities, since buildings and nature coexist in an exemplary way. The ground floor of the building rises to the same level as the Plaça Cívica. This floor, dedicated to access, control, information and student service, also contains a multipurpose room. The first level is intended for Library Management services. The other three belong to the library and newspaper library. The upper floor, at the level of the pine forest, is a construction open to the vegetation. This is the reason why the building inverts its façade according to the height. The wall opposite the openings is solid and houses the bookstore. Quite the opposite, the lower floors up to Plaça Cívica orientate themselves on the square and take advantage of the wall's blindness to accommodate all the bookstores. In the layout of the spaces, it should be noted that this façade faces north, the most suitable orientation for a library. The building, therefore, is completely turned upside down to give meaning to the different situation on the ground: the Plaça Cívica on one side, and the grove or garden square on the other.
Hotel and Spa Ra Beach

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

Després de molts anys de malviure en un estat d'abandó, el Sanatori de Sant Joan de Déu, de Calafell, ha trobat el nou ús que el salva de la ruïna. Amb el naixement de l'Hotel i Spa Ra Beach, allò que s'havia convertit en una baluerna condenada a ser material d'enderroc passa a esdevenir focus de nova activitat i revitalització de l'entorn immediat. La nova construcció embolcalla l'antiga, deixant clara la diferència entre l'obra original i la nova. L'edificació nova es desplega en dues ales en forma d'U, que creixen a cadascun dels costats de l'antic sanatori, i a l'entorn d'unes làmines d'aigua. Aquestes ales, com ho faria un claustre, reben les visites de les habitacions i ho fan a través de terrasses protegides per persianes d'alumini que uniformen la façana interior i que, emmirallades en l'aigua, doblen la visió del conjunt. Per la banda oposada, discorren els corredors d'accés a les estances privades, que, amb façanes molt opaques, s'allunyen de l'entorn me´s immediat mitjançant grans murs recoberts de pedra, sobre els quals apareixen els finestrals, pocs però grans, amb reixa, que permeten la visió cap a l'exterior però que també garanteixen la intimitat interior. Les habitacions més singulars de l'Hotel aprofiten la vàlua espacial de l'arquitectura original. S'ha intervingut sobre l'antic sanatori amb l'exigència i el respecte rigorós per l'obra de Rodríguez Arias, tot enaltint-ne els abundants valors arquitectònics i corregint-ne algunes mancances, per adecuar-lo al nou ús i al cos de la normativa actual. El conjunt desplega una important massa volumètrica: sense sobrepassar mai la cornisa del sanatori, l'obra es produeix en una planta baixa i dos pisos. La dimensió horitzontal, dominant, solament és sobrepassada pels badalots de les escales, el coronament d'algunes instal·lacions tècniques i la piscina coberta de talassoteràpia, que tanquen la coberta de l'edifici a la manera d'un gran vaixell.
Vilella House

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

La casa ocupa un solar d'uns dos mil metres quadrats, de pendent arbrat amb pins, que han estat molt útils per articular la morfologia de l'arquitectura. La visió llunyana de l'horitzó marí de Lloret de Mar, l'entorn, desproveït de caràcter propi, i la forma difícil del solar, tot plegat ens va abocar a una arquitectura d'introspecció. La posició de la casa, al límit superior, va alliberar més espai per al jardí. La casa disposa d'una cuina d'excepcional qualitat, situada en un lloc prominent, al centre, amb sortida a l'exterior i en relació directa amb la taula-menjador. Totes les peces s'articulen al voltant d'aquest espai. Té una sala d'audiovisuals, totalment aïllada de l'exterior, sense claror natural, tancada entre murs de formigó i situada sota el nivell del sòl. La piscina coberta, llarga i estreta a la part de darrere de la casa, satisfà l'afecció i la necessitat de nedar, en silenci, fins i tot en la foscor. La casa té una sola façana operativa, oberta cap a la pineda. L'interior i el jardí es confonen en un mateix escenari. Les grans obertures envidriades dominen tot el nivell inferior, en contacte amb el jardí; en canvi, els tancaments de fusta, amb unes singulars gelosies, proporcionen la intimitat que requereix la planta superior. L'espai exterior, de Manel Colominas, respon a un tractament natural del territori, sense gespa, sense paviments durs i quasi sense murs ni escales. Les escultures metàl·liques, de l'escultor suís-català Carles Valverde, arrodoneixen la intervenció. L'interiorisme de Teresa Ferrín revesteix els murs blancs i els paviments amb una pedra de tons verd gris. El mobiliari elegit resulta així un contrapunt amè, lleuger i elegant.
Sota Muralla Residential Complex

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

En el pendent sud-oest del promontori on s'assenteixi la vila de Puigcerdà, s'estenen zones de bosc i prats que actuen de pulmó urbà abans d'arribar a la plana de la vall on la ciutat queda limitada per la via de ferrocarril que condueix a França. En aquest pendent i amb unes magnífiques vistes sobre la serra del Cadí es troba el solar objecte del projecte. La nostra obsessió en manipular la topografia existent perseguia l'objectiu de crear una barrera visual que dissimulés les naus industrials de la zona de l'estació, alhora que servís d'espai comunitari de convivència davant de la façana principal per els usuaris de la promoció. Vam distribuir els 59 habitatges previstos al solar a quatre edificis que s'articulen formant un esglaonament virtual al llarg del vial d'accés. Els edificis estan ubicats en la part més alta a la fi d'obtenir les millors vistes i un bon aprofitament de la superfície, mentre que en la part baixa creix un jardí amb dunes que fan de pantalla davant de la zona industrial. L'arquitectura de cada edifici es defineix amb un doble llenguatge. La part sud (façana principal) està revestida de fusta, material càlid, colorit, que destaca la lleugeresa del cos volat; i la façana nord, s'ha edificat amb una densa i corpòria construcció de pedra col·locada a la usança de la zona. La distribució de la superfície de cada bloc en dos nivells permet trencar l'horitzontalitat de les cobertes i adaptar els accessos a la topografia del jardí. Els soterranis estan ocupats per un generós garatge amb espais trasters annexos, als quals s'accedeix mitjançant rampes parapetades amb acústica entre els edificis per dissimular el trànsit de vehicles. Les tipologies usades en aquesta obra troben el seu espai en una estructura de dues escales per edifici. Hi ha apartaments de dos, tres i quatre dormitoris, dúplex i inclús algun apartament especial per a dues famílies. S'han integrat tipologies diferents a un únic volum edificatori, capacitant així façanes més heterogènies al sud i façanes més rítmiques i repetitives, al nord. La presència de les xemeneies, generoses en nombre i bé visibles per la mida, confereix a l'obra una connotació muntanyenca, igual com les cobertes acabades amb pissarra i els canalons vistos de les façanes. Un projecte que reuneix obligats tocs d'arquitectura vernacla amb altres de volumetria i materials més moderns i menys freqüents en la Cerdanya.
Sitjas House

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

The house of Calella has been designed from adversity. The suggestive initial assignment proposed us to design a house between partitions, for a single family, in a narrow street in Calella del Maresme. Everything presupposed a good opportunity for architecture, similar to the one Coderch had when he designed the house-workshop of the painter Antoni Tàpies, in a narrow street in Barcelona's Sant Gervasi district. The two houses are located in similar urban plots, densified, with three-storey buildings and narrow façades without much personality. But these apparently optimal circumstances turned into pitfalls as we delved deeper into the jigsaw puzzle of a surprisingly strict municipal regulation. The plot, with two dividers on each side and no patio, only has an eight-metre façade open to the street. This adverse circumstance led our project to close in on itself, to look inward looking for the zenith light and the inner empty space. The regulations allowed us four levels of slabs, undoubtedly too high for a single-family house, and required a gable roof built with ceramic tiles. Fortunately, the functional programme of our clients was quite open and their trust in us did not restrict too much the project speculations that were emerging. We opted for two lines of action that formed the driving ideas of the entire project. The first was the work of foaming the allowed volume, creating a central courtyard that acted as a true place of relationship, a kind of introspective square of reduced size, with a glazed roof and dimmable light intensity. The interior façades, windows, double volumes, walkways and stairs pour over this space, which configure a scenario of family life rich in visual perspectives and complex in its operation. The second axis of action revolved around the segmentation of uses by levels. Each level receives its own, determined and autonomous program. On the first level, which constitutes the pavement of the central volume, we located the community spaces of the home, the kitchen, the dining room, the pantry, the cellar, the toilet and the living room, composed of two rooms: one more collected, more interior, presided over by a fireplace, and the other brighter, more open, on which all the rooms of the house spill out. On the second level we located the parents' bedroom with its dressing room and bathroom. This level is completed with a study room on the other side of the walkway. On the third level, there are the children's bedrooms, their two bathrooms and another specific workspace. Finally, on level 0, which connects to the street, after a wide porch that allows the accesses to be arranged, the garage, the storage rooms, the workshop, the boiler room, the lobby, the elevator and the start of the ladder. This arrangement clearly differentiates two blocks: on the street, all the outbuildings that require immediate ventilation; and on the central void, those others that allow a more deferred lighting and ventilation, more still. Thus, the house is organised into private uses (intimacy), community uses (relationship) and work uses (work). The house - once finished, furnished and lived in - is very bright, cheerful and alternative, full of suggestive interior spaces, views, open rooms and corners. The general interior volume makes using it a constant surprise, especially favoured by the sculptural staircase-passageway-library that runs from top to bottom and across the width of one side of the courtyard. The materials used are reduced to a minimal palette of varieties. Sobriety was essential to assess the volumes, the entrances of light and the interior façades in the courtyard. The white concrete block was used to cover the partition walls, which ensures good insulation (double wall) and a level of finish with an outdoor vocation. To finish the interior façade, we chose the veneer of composite marine board, which allows for cut-out windows and air conditioning outlets. The floors are mostly treated with Merbau floating parquet, and the large, glazed surfaces shade the light with adjustable aluminum slats and rollable Helioscreen awnings. The homogeneous appearance of the furniture, the choice of materials and colours, and above all the design of the specific furniture that make up the architecture, is due to Teresa Ferrín, who has collaborated again with our studio, ensuring a remarkable interior design, essential for a work like this to be assumed as a comprehensible and comfortable whole. The suggestive initial order, as we have explained, has become, after the adversities typical of every project, one of the most rewarding works of recent years. A pleasant house to live in, full of space, emptiness and light.
Ferrer-Bobet Winery

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

En una vall retirada i silenciosa entre Porrera i Falset, creixen les vinyes de Ferrer Bobet, una jove firma dels anomenats nous vins del Priorat. Al programa inicial, similar al d'altres cellers de producció semblant, es van afegir altres elements de caràcter pròpiament enològic que van exigir interessants novetats: se'ns demanava que el procés d'elaboració del vi es produís íntegrament per gravetat, sense ajuts mecànics ni sistemes de bombeig. La situació geogràfica, sobre l'eix d'una carena aterrassada, tota voltada de vinyes i amb visió des de 360º, desaconsellava bastir cap altra construcció auxiliar o complementària. Si tot havia de ser vist i no destorbar, doncs, cap punt de visió, l'edifici no podia presentar angles morts. Per tant, des del començament vam plantejar una construcció ancorada en terra que, amb un volum notablement submergit, donés cabuda als espais d'elaboració del vi i a les instal·lacions tècniques, a recer de vistes. Solament el volum superior, en què es disposen els espais d'accés, embotellat i expedició, com també l'àrea de visites, es fa present sobre l'horitzó muntanyós. La plaça de recepció del raïm que articula les diferents maniobres dels vehicles i els primers processos de vinificació és un altre element definidor del projecte. En aquest espai de forta horitzontalitat que contrasta amb els pendents del territori hem projectat un potent element que serveix alhora de contenció de la muntanya i d'annex als accessos a la planta inferior, soterrada, destinada a la vinificació i la guarda de les bótes. Els materials triats havien de servir els principis exposats: capacitat de mimetisme amb el paisatge, usant la pedra local aparellada en sec en els murs en contacte amb la vinya, dinamisme tecnològic en aquells elements volats de forta sol·licitació de càrregues i, finalment, esveltesa i lleugeresa en els tancaments i en el cobriment de l'edifici. El celler funciona com un petit i insòlit vaixell encallat entre vinyes, un objecte que reposa el seu precari equilibri en el paisatge feréstec d'aquest racó amagat del Priorat. Entenem que el temps i l'exuberància geomètrica de la vinya assimilaran al paisatge aquest particular edifici agrícola d'innegable vocació domèstica.
Món Hotel

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

The decision to build a new hotel on the site of the Monastery of Sant Benet de Bages was the result of a long project. From the moment Caixa Manresa acquired ownership of the legendary Romanesque monument, the economic, technical and creative springs were set in motion to assemble a complex and suggestive idea to revitalise not only the surroundings of Sant Benet, but also a large part of the Bages region. Caixa Manresa has facilitated the transfer of an old Benedictine monastery of medieval origin to an emblematic complex of as yet unplanned scope, a project called Món Sant Benet. Around the monastery, which has been restored and extended for museum and congress centre uses, there is a new building for a reception centre and banqueting space, a specific centre for research in the field of food, the Alícia Foundation, and, finally, a four-star hotel located around the complex that acts as a physical and visual boundary on the edge of the buildings. The Món hotel is conceived as one more piece in the building fabric, keeping its own shapes and using materials, colours and textures in harmony with those of the other existing buildings. The project is articulated around an enclosed garden, with the church bell tower as a reference element and visual guide for the complex. The 89 rooms offer views exclusively towards this space, through covered terraces protected by aluminium shutters. Thus, a single-bay hotel is conceived where all the rooms face the good orientation, while the access corridor serves and surrounds them on the opposite side. The form of the building responds to this premise: an open, glazed and active appearance towards the south, and closed façades with occasional and strategic perforations towards the north. The building complex described above is developed on three levels, on which the rooms are distributed. Only the central level, which serves as access to the clients, has large areas for public use. This is where the reception, lounges, cafeteria, bar and restaurant are located, all of which open onto a large outdoor platform facing the monastery. The almost indefinite alignment of the rooms is interrupted by the broken form of the powerful volumetry, which generates bodies that open or fit together according to the needs and uses of the articulation nodes. The three floors of the hotel are crowned by a metallic roof that runs along a good part of the perimeter, facilitating the installation of extractors, fireplaces, etc., inside to prevent their visual presence from the outside. The broken alignment of the hotel has two exceptions: the fissure that occurs in the canal area, where a glazed body has been designed to serve as a gastronomic dining room, and the playful esplanade around the open-air swimming pool situated on the south-western limit of the site. The austerity of the architectural language was one of the objectives pursued. The limited use of materials, the grey, green and even black tones chosen and the predominance of natural stone in contact with the exposed concrete give the hotel an almost monastic appearance; appropriate, in our opinion, to the historic monument. The initial arguments of adaptation to the territory, orientation towards the monastery, solid and austere image, and integration into the landscape have been effectively fulfilled. All that remains now is to get the complex up and running and adapt its use to the sometimes strict architectural requirements.
Extension of the Hispania Restaurant

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet

Since Hispania opened its doors as a restaurant in 1957 - it had been a garage in previous years - 52 years have passed. The Reixach family has run this historic establishment with unprecedented success and its notability has transcended state borders. Today's Hispania is cataloged by the country's main guides as one of the best restaurants in Spain, and the Reixach sisters, the current owners, have been awarded countless prizes and recognitions. Hispania is therefore a monument to gastronomy and as such it is difficult to propose to modify or expand it without losing the magic that half a century of history has conferred on it. For this reason, the task we received to design a deep reform of the premises filled us with concern, for the complexity of the place and for its significance in the history of Catalan cuisine, but also with enthusiasm for what it represented a challenge to intervene profitably and skillfully in a space so full of memories. Surprisingly, the owners let the architects suggest where and how to act, a responsibility that has weighed on the authors until the results have finally been seen and verified. Therefore, we chose a solution that seemed the most neutral to us, which interfered less with the history of the house. And, in an adjoining garden, attached to the façade of the main building, we projected a glass pavilion, light, transparent and aerial, supported by only two points on the base of the garden. The metal structure building is covered by means of a prestressing central truss allowing it to be built in just 3 and a half months thanks to the systems manufactured in the workshop and the use of self-supporting thermochip panels. With total exterior measurements of 16.45 x 5.00 x 3.50m high, the space is configured as a single room connected to the old dining room through a body-belly that acts as a pre-hallway and separates the two spaces, the new and the old. A demanding performance in terms of acoustic behaviour, with the base of ecofont panels and perimeter walls of scratched wood, ensures surprising environmental comfort, which is complemented by other materials such as oak parquet on the floor, fabric roll-up curtains on the perimeter glass and the chairs covered in quality upholstery give the space a sense of well-being that the Hispania customer appreciates. The modular distribution based on mobile auxiliary furniture allows the configuration of the new dining room to be easily varied, while the lighting, programmed by computer, nuances and precisely matches the desired scenarios. The dining room has already come into use and its relationship with the historic room has proven not only compatible but extraordinarily complementary. In fact, it is gaining importance given its round shapes, its bright and comfortable space and its cozy and versatile furniture. The history of Hispania will be able to continue its path without setbacks. Its new dining room will become another chapter that will be written, with admirable vocation, by its owners and masterful cooks, Paquita and Lolita Reixach.
Bodegues i Centre de Visites Miguel Torres

Espinet/Ubach, Arquitectes i Associats, Miquel Espinet i Mestre, Antoni Ubach i Nuet