Cristalleries Planell Civic Centre: Reconciling Construction and Heritage

Energy and sustainability, FULL, H arquitectes, Middle Density, Project, Urban Paradigms

Barcelona, Bricks, Comfort, Community Facilities, Courtyard, Efficiency, Energetic Approach, Energy consumption, Façade, Future Urban Legacy Lab, Geometry, Heritage, Industrial context, Inner courtyard, Project, Solar Energy, Spain, Sustainable, Thermal comfort, Urban landscape, Urban Legacy, Urban Paradigms, Ventilation

This public facility houses an adult education center, a language standarization consortium and a hotel on a triangular plot in the Parliament district. Two of the three sides of the site are defined by the heritage-listed frontage of the former Planell glass factory, built on carrer Anglesola in 1913. The building makes use of the entire plot, acting as an intrinsic part of the urban landscape, although the triangular shape and the classified façades prevent it from occupying the entire site. The program is distributed across four levels which are set back from the south-facing heritage façade. The resulting atrium reconciles construction and heritage, improves the natural lighting for the classrooms and provides a heat and sound barrier. This long, narrow courtyard is reproduced at the northern vertex, which exhausts the geometry but acts as a relational system between the administrative uses of the building and the exterior. The building section shows how it controls and manages the air under natural conditions.