The defensive walls of Ibiza are one of the most important displays of fortification systems with bastions of the seconds half of the XVI century in Europe, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritatge site in 1999.

To repair the pieces of mares stone in the corners and the cord line both sides are affected. In some cases, due to structural issues, in some others to better the understanding of the monument. In all the restorations there will be indicators to differentiate the original parts from the newer ones.

The proposal is sensitive to the urban and historical reality that surrounds it, and takes as guidelines the patterns given by the traces of the site. The old Mossen Bosch door is recovered, providing an access plaza to the new institutional building, which is formalized as a porch and opened to the territory. The new public space becomes the point of convergence of the main pedestrian flows of the streets that surround the intervention, and which bring citizens coming from all directions to the new equipment.

The existing topography allows the building to meet with the city at different levels. The plinth of the building houses the most public part of the program, which unfolds on all these levels, weaving and allowing its relationship with the environment.

The proposal recognizes and values the ​​historic buildings, in a game of proximity, respect and counterpoint between new elements and heritage.

The new plaza is integrated into the urban fabric, inheriting dimensions and geometries from the environment. The extension finds its volumetric formalization in the morphology of the old nucleus, imitating the alignments and setbacks that characterize it. The dead end street that now generates the setback of the building with respect to the Baixada de la Seu is resolved by integrating it into the urban fabric.

The voids

The building spins around two courtyards located in the center of the block. The old walls, originally conceived as partition walls, now become protagonistic elements, new windows are opened and their texture is brought out. The entire program is organized around these two voids, grouped under criteria of functionality and comfort requirements.

Intervention criteria on the existing building

The interventions on the buildings are done with the utmost respect for the original construction systems and finishes. They are stripped of false artifices leaving the essence of the materials, their texture and porosity. The aim is to clean up the superfluous layers in order to return to the original state of the spaces and to highlight those interventions that deserve to be preserved.

Intervention criteria in the new constructions

A mixed construction system is envisaged, based on the criteria of sustainability and contrast. A metal structure with horizontal / vertical wooden enclosures provides lightness to the massive perception of the existing buildings, finding harmony in the contrast between them.

Contrast criteria

We look for the contrast between concepts to give value to the architecture of existing heritage. These concepts challenge the senses, and therefore, affect the tangible and sensorial qualities. Old / new, rough / smooth, massive / light, closed / permeable, hierarchical / flexible.

The new roofs are integrated with the existing ones in the building of the City Council as well as in the context of the old town. The roof of the main body is completed forming four slopes. It avoids touching the central walls, creating a skylight over the interior patio. These perforations play an important role in the bioclimatic strategy and provide natural lighting to the building.

The relationship with the environment and the neighborhood is a fundamental issue of the project, since the existing plot is quite penalized by topography and scarce sunlight. The aim is to take advantage of the topography to generate an urban concept at various scales.

A porch invites you to access the intervention through a little square located on the roof of the building, which becomes a privileged place situated above the public space. On a closer scale, the project recognizes the nuances given by each of the 3 orientations, generating accesses from the inner courtyard of the block. The exception is made in the 4th and the 5th floors of the north building, which are intended to address the problems of noise and orientation by entering the units through the facade.

The housing units have been designed using a diagonal distribution of the main rooms. This geometrical strategy intends to capture the maximum solar radiation during winter, while distinguishing the uses of living, dining and kitchen areas. Those have a double orientation that allows cross ventilation, ensuring that all units have enough sunlight. Each unit has two terraces, one in the living room and the other in the entrance, generating an intermediate space with movable panels that provide privacy, while functioning as a thermal and acoustic protection.

The real estate development consists of 2 and 3 bedrooms with a total of 60 housing units. Both types are based on the same system, facilitating the standardization of solutions to optimize costs and simplify the installations as much as possible.

Real estate development of 34 housing units in El Dorado sector in the city of Cambrils, which is developed in two units that share common spaces, a group of 24 and another of 10 houses

The location is set on a high point over the promenade and the beach of La Llosa, in a neighborhood of single-family houses. Given the geometry of the site, it is solved by a group of semi-detached houses located in a semi-circle around a large community garden area with a pool and children playground. The resulting houses have a constructed area between 135-160 m² and a private garden.

The volume is straight and simple, with a flat roof to house solar and air conditioning installations. Responding to the different orientations, sun protection is provided by means of fixed or mobile elements. The construction has been resolved using a traditional concrete structure, although the geometry and the dimensions allow for a transition to industrialization or prefabrication.

The houses have been designed following criterias of flexibility and non-hierarchization; designing the house through spaces with similar characteristics, which allow it to be used in different and changing ways over time.

Real estate development of 56 housing units in El Maset sector in the city of Cambrils, which is developed in two units, a group of 43 and another of 13 houses.

The first unit is made up of blocks composed of Ground floor + 1st floor / Ground floor + 2 floors. The houses are grouped into buildings of 4 or 5 units with a constructed area ​​between 145 and 200 m², with a private garden and a common garden area on a 10,840 m² plot.

The second unit consists of 13 single-family houses, 12 of which are semi-detached, with a constructed area of ​​210 m² on a privative plot of 400 m².

The volume is straight and simple, with a flat roof to house solar and air conditioning installations. Responding to the different orientations, sun protection is provided by means of fixed or mobile elements.

The construction has been resolved using a traditional concrete structure, although the geometry and the dimensions allow for a transition to industrialization or prefabrication.

The houses have been designed following criterias of flexibility and non-hierarchization; designing the house through spaces with similar characteristics, which allow it to be used in different and changing ways over time.

The intervention is born from the municipal will to continue the transformation of the urban center of Santa Eulalia del Río in favor of pedestrians and merchants, with the renovation of the square and the street of Isidor Macabich. The aim was to recover a degraded public space, which presently belonged mainly to cars.

The first objective of the project is the replacement of the vehicles by people, recovering the public space of the square as a place of meeting and social interaction. The project shapes an open and versatile central space, delimited by three perimeter subspaces: a historic garden that hosts the canyon and the sculpture of the peasant woman, a playful space with water fountains and a space of rest and leisure in the shade of the newly planted trees.

Likewise, the traffic of the area is pacified, being reduced to one direction going up from the sea, promoting a new commercial axis that links with a series of pedestrian routes in the city center. The project incorporates a series of literary quotes by Isidor Macabich at different points along the way.

The origin of the town hall building goes back to the year 1727, when the municipality acquired the land to build a hospital. This was finally built in 1804. In 1833 it was used as a town hall and in 1891-93 the construction works were carried out by the architect Bonaventura Pollés Vivó, giving result to the current appearance of the building in its noblest parts.

The first two buildings were vacanted in the summer of 2012. The reason for the eviction was the affectation of the wooden structure of the main building by a plague of termites and woodworm.

To the right of the town hall building there is a third municipal building, called annex building, which is still partially in use on its second floor. This was not part of the initial commission, but was incorporated during the execution of the project.

The construction works are divided into three phases. The first phase is the one that is finished and in operation. This phase is the main one since the first and second floor of the the town hall building, have been refurbished and its surface expanded on the ground floor towards the west, the result of the demolition of Can Riba. It is worth mentioning the reinforcement of the structure and the new spatial distribution as highlighted interventions. A new vertical core is created inside the main volume, which solves its different levels, as well as the ones of the annex building.

The project consists of  96 rental social housing units between the streets of Aiguablava and Palamós in the neighborhood of Trinitat Nova. The proposal is sensitive to the newly arranged reality: the building conceptualized as a bridge within the park, its passage is generously dimensioned, voids in the facade are opened in order to give visual continuity to all the floors, the vertical cores perpetuate the green throughout the building and a landscaped roof with vegetable gardens have been planned.

The building acknowledges the different orientations generated by the regulatory requirements by incorporating voids that allow the typologies with a single orientation to enjoy natural cross ventilation as well. The entire proposal is structured within a grid of 3.40 × 3.40m, giving order and consistency to the typological diversity.

The housing units have been designed following criteria of flexibility and non-hierarchization; all the rooms are double, thus allowing the adaptation of the house to the changing needs of its users and responding to the variety of family units present in our society.

Regarding sustainability criteria, we propose to reach the NZEB or nearly zero energy building standards. It is necessary to adopt a design attitude that places the energy vector at the root of the project. In this sense, the proposal establishes a basis of passive architecture. The volumetric complexity of the planning regulations and the topography invite us to imagine an intervention on the facade that provides uniformity to the whole volume. This is the reason why the terraces are being recast and a continuous skin with different degrees of porosity is the one that gives a solution to the movable solar shades.

The project modulates the proposal on a grid of 3.00 × 3.40 m, which orders and guides the placement of the pieces that compose the different rooms of the apartments. The maximization of the facade development guarantees maximum sun exposure, ventilation and views.

The permeable ground floor generates a continuum of green spaces that pass through a generous interior courtyard, in between the big scale of the rear public space and the entrance to the building itself.

The common spaces as the houses are organized by a mesh with no hierarchies, which allows for flexible and adaptable spaces, inclusive apartments that enjoy spatial versatility. All the housing open up both towards the street and the interior courtyard, generating cross ventilation – a layout which gives a solution to all the typologies required by the program.

The project has been developed following the tradition of the rural house: the typological solution based on the association of pieces, the use of proximity and sustainable solutions, the skin of the building, resembling fenced gates, is solved through the change in scale of the traditional fabric.

Passive energy saving measures are valued, prioritizing passive systems over active systems.

The project is located in the urban center of Dalt Vila, the oldest part of the city of Ibiza, which has been declared UNESCO World Heritage Site since December 1999. The area of ​​intervention is delimited by walls belonging to the triple Arab enclosure as well as by medieval walls, all of them belonging to defensive structures within the Vila Superior, a privileged place for its spectacular views over the city and the port.

In 2008 a first phase was carried out, including the recovery of the historical gradients of the access to the casemate, the containment of the existing fillings on the wall and the consolidation of the crowning with a typological parapet solution.

The aim of the second phase of the project was the conservation and enhancement of the existing defensive structures discovered throughout the construction work of the first phase. The value of the Renaissance wall in Calle Santa María has been enhanced, while the pedestrian access has been smoothed out until reaching the archaeological zone. The plaza is a multipurpose open space with benches and surrounded by greenery, where all circulations are concentrated. The vertical core for the access to the Casa de la Curia from the plaza has been remodeled.

The stone, main material of the performance, has been used both for the retaining walls as for the new access to the Casa de la Curia, as well as for the deactivated concrete pavements, exposing the texture of the stone-based aggregate or ceramic.

A stream, a path, a walk between fields, the recovery of an abandoned raft, dry stone walls, native vegetation, become protagonists recovered from a not too distant past of the Empordà landscape. It is the pretext for the consolidation of a green axis that connects the residential area of ​​the small center of Esclanyà with its old town.

We look at the wooden poles that guide the landscape of the nearby fields and that delimit private or grass areas, and incorporate them into the project. This way, the route that leads the proposal is accompanied by a series of vertical posts, with different functions according to the position they occupy, according to the distance that separates them or according to their height. The wooden posts, in addition to mark the tour guidelines, create children’s games, mazes, mikados, solve the lighting, the fountain, the bollard, the railings…

The vegetation helps to definitely integrate the new space into the environment. The native vegetation, such as holm oaks, cypresses and pine trees, is preserved. The grass, the reeds and the soft pavements of earth or sand merge with the rest of the textures that make up the landscape.

The refurbishment and general adaptation of the building is planned in order to respond to the new conditions of use and accessibility. Likewise, in order to standardize the project’s solution with the existing envelope, the new skin is spread along the entire west facade, improving this way the sun exposure.

Conceptually, we start off with some massive elements emerging from the ground and a permeable skin. We place a set of volumes within the space, which generate circulations. They contain internal office services and activities, and serve at the same time to separate other spaces.

The massive volumes are formalized with a wooden skeleton cladded with mixed-type panels made of wood and cement. When they look out, a sandwich panel is incorporated, which guarantees waterproofing and thermal insulation.

The project starts from the need for a large extension of the existing school. An important challenge is to create a new volume integrated in the environment, marking a new access. Another one is to carry out the construction works while keeping the school running.

The proposal is a new building parallel to the existing ones, so that a new courtyard can be created between them, open to the south and to the north, crossed by an overpass that becomes the new entrance building as it approaches the street. The new entrance contains the vertical cores and a system of ramps that solve the accesses, freeing the center of any architectural barrier.

On a functional level, the existing buildings are used for preschool education and more versatile and administrative uses, leaving the rest of the program for primary education, kitchen, dining room and gym in the new building. The new buildings are integrated with the existing ones using materials and finishes that give unity to the whole, with a set of colors and plans. Similarly, integration in the rural environment and typically Mediterranean vegetation is sought.

The program is resolved with a building that breaks into volumes to preserve the protected trees and the Mediterranean character of the place, allow the transition between interior and exterior and resolve the ventilation and natural lighting, from a playful effect of lights and shadows nuanced by the pine trees.

An external transition access plaza is created between the street and the school, at the height of the pine forest. Inside, an access distribution space is designed, which serves for all the units of the program. The project aims to recreate the typical setting of the Mediterranean street, as a place of encounter, relationship and children’s play. It is a luminous and fluid transition space between interior and exterior, which aims to enhance the benefits of education through collective activities.

The five classrooms are placed and grouped by age in the southeast façade, as to take better advantage of the orientation and save the views on the neighboring school. In the northern part of the project, filtering the noise pollution of the street, the rest of the community and services program is developed. It works in plan and section, in order to create a passive bioclimatic building, understanding the roof as another facade of the project.

The study of the functional program of the social premises leads us to think that flexibility and multifunctionality should be the main characteristics of the project. Spaces that respond adequately to various requirements of occupation and use.

The possibility of being able to build on the entire plot on the ground floor allows us to place the patio in a central position, turning the interior spaces towards that controlled exterior.

The patio becomes an element of the project that helps us improve the energy performance of the building, with the idea of ​​basing sustainable construction on the design. It also facilitates cross-ventilation for the entire center while maximizing the area of ​​direct natural lighting. The connection of the patio with the entrance hall and the configuration of the hall itself allows a simple reading of the interior composition of the building and facilitates circulation between the different spaces. The patio is also understood as an extension of the rooms on the ground floor.

The project as a whole seeks to offer an austere image, both due to budget requirements and because it is a public building, where dignity is found in its function. This is underlined by simple and apparently imperfect materials, such as exposed concrete for the pavements and ceilings, corten steel for the facade cladding and the patio furniture.

The new Hofmatt nursing home is an opportunity to modernize and expand the existing facilities and, at the same time, energize the life and culture of the citizens of Arth.

The building is located in the northern half of the site, leaving free ground for future expansion. The first thing we find is that the building plus the future extension occupy a large part of the site, therefore, we need to align the building to the limits in order to free up the maximum empty space in the central strip of the site. We want to create a central plaza well related to the population, in order to achieve a cultural and service exchange between the young and the elder generation. It is in this area where we locate the access to the residence and the most public parts of the program: cafeteria, multipurpose space, dining room, physiotherapy and hairdressing.

The building on the ground floor extends from north to south as an organism that is looking for the best relationships between the pieces of the program, the environment and the good orientations. The upper floors have a geometry that opens up towards the south, with the bedrooms oriented mainly towards east and west. The extension follows similar characteristics, establishing a dialogue with its predecessor; an L-shaped volume open to the west, recognizing the public space and the pedestrian connection to the Hofmatt and the center of the town.

The outer skin is made of treated wood slats, which become more permeable (in the form of a lattice) in front of the openings, formalizing the sliding railings and shutters, which dispose of centralized but also individual motorization in the rooms. There is a second type of large openings that are configured as carved holes in the volume. They are spaces covered with glass planes, removed according to the orientation, to provide shade in the summer and sun in the winter.

We face the project from the entire refurbishment of Can Jeroni, both in its interior and exterior spaces. The project includes an interior emptying maintaining the envelope, the structure and renovating the facilities.

On a conceptual level, the action aims to achieve the image of a white box on two levels, where the main space is intended for the cultural use at both floors, communicated internally by an inner staircase that eventually gives rise to a double space, allowing a visual connection between both levels.

The smaller space is used for services, facilities and storage, and an exhibition ramp on the ground floor. From this ramp we connect with the access staircase from the ground floor and with a newly created access from Doctor’s Street, so that the building becomes completely accessible.

The facade gaps are ordered and unified, maintaining the image of the courtyard facade and the identifying volume of the building’s roof. The outer space is freed from architectural barriers, favoring a neutral space that allows the expansion of the limited outer space when necessary.

The first project decision is to change the concept of an “island” to a “peninsula” type plaza by eliminating the road that runs along its south side. The integration of a pre-existing protected element in the center of the square is an important challenge, since the new centrality is displaced to the south. A large displaced circle gives rise to a new central space, with other semi-circular elements orbiting around it.

A pedestal, a playground and green parterres are part of this universe around the new centrality. The square becomes a living space, but it allows you to cross it naturally in multiple directions. Porous pavements of various textures are predominant, while the new vegetation acts as a visual filter, creating a human and natural space in the city center.

The building for the new Manlleu library and archive is located on the land occupied by the old “La Piara” factory, which is included in the remodeling project for the entire sector. The regulations that define the new arrangement trace a plot of linear blocks of different heights, all with sloping roofs.

We understand that the library building, despite respecting volumetric parameters, must be able to differentiate itself from the neighboring buildings housing units. It is necessary that the representativeness that such an equipment demands begins in its image towards the city. That is why we design an outer skin that responds to the regulatory requirements and guarantees the intended volumetric continuity. This abstract and permeable envelope, which aims to set the counterpoint with the domestic architecture of the environment, gives us the freedom to sculpt a second volume inside which is less constrained, and at the same time is pushed towards the back of the plot, enjoying its free space and that of the square which delimits it.

It is a set of wooden slats that, while filtering the direct sunlight, project the diffuse light to a greater depth. The latticework of the massive skin perform the same function, integrating themselves into the plan of the facade. The composition of the buildings in two volumes around a central courtyard, allows for cross ventilation on all floors, including the basement, while spatially relating all parts of the building to one another. The interior volume of the block opens up with large windows towards the public space in the south, where the staggering of the building itself generates the necessary eaves for a correct sun protection.

We start from a very narrow and long plot that connects two streets of the old town, the result of the demolition of the old noble house “Can Culí”. The project aims to connect these two streets through a porch on the ground floor. It is the protagonist and the axis that crosses the whole intervention, allowing access to the different parts of the program: commercial spaces, vertical cores of the housing units and a central square.

The design aims to create a general perception of four independent buildings. This fragmentation of the volumes respects the scale of the rest of the buildings in the old town and it guarantees good conditions of sunlight and ventilation in the units, notably improving their energy efficiency. Consequently, the exterior vertical cores generate very useful and versatile spaces of socialization, inspired by the public spaces of Mediterranean cities.

The project is located in the old access to the 12th century walled enclosure of Puigpelat, popularly called “El Portal”. The municipality is located on a hill above the plain of the Alt camp, with magnificent views on the Tarragona countryside.

This is a refurbishment intervention of the outer space of the portal (double stone arch, Roman and Gothic) that saves the gap between the town and the lower fields. This access was quite degraded by the passage of time itself and by a precarious drainage network that has been damaging the existing pavements and retaining wall.

The slope of the old stairs has been noticeably softened by stepped ramps that are born from the two ends of the wall. This has a curved geometry with two extreme accesses and a wider central viewpoint at the top.

We emphasize the powerful geometry of the wall through an inclined crown of steel that becomes a comfortable support to contemplate the vineyards.

The natural stone of the place, the pavements of brown concrete pavers, seeds plaster and steel cuttings, integrate chromatically with the environment. These materials have been chosen especially for their durability and low maintenance. A careful lighting and minimal landscaping consolidate a pleasant space without unnecessary artificialities.

The proposal is framed within the “Plan of Urban Improvement for the Old Town Center of Valls”. The plan is to build a new municipal library, as well as a residential building, an underground car park and a public space, at the crossroad between the streets of Forn Nou and Sant Pere.

The approaching views are very important and, in our opinion, must be capitalized by the new library. In this way, the library generates the new plaza. We place the housing units facing the street of Sant Pere.

We position the access ramp to the car park at the junction between the two buildings, freeing the public space of this element. The project integrates the pedestrian exits of the parking into the buildings.

Dialogues between limits and the search for the south

We were concerned by providing a pleasant solution to the union between old and new. We believe in the importance to establish an interesting dialogue both between the limits of the intervention and the environment, as well as within the internal limits themselves. Our proposal is to do it through a set of fissures that function as transition holes. Generating these interstices, the buildings approach each other with deference.

Like the vast majority of old towns, that of Valls is predominantly gloomy. The north orientation of both the buildings and the plaza does not help in the improvement of this aspect. In contrast, the center of the block enjoys plenty of sun, thanks to the porosity of the space. We take advantage of the proposed fissures between the buildings to generate leaks of light and sun.

The powerful language of form

Let’s imagine the building as a large stone die that has been sculpted. Through voids and fillings we are giving shape (and response) to the library. The abstract geometries that we generate help us to enhance the presence of equipment within a highly consolidated residential building environment. The powerful beauty of forms seduces the viewer, inviting him to discover what is hidden behind them.

How voids fill the space

Deepen the relationships between spaces. Since the program is developed in height, we wanted to integrate some floors with others by emptying certain areas. This allows us to create visual relationships between floors that share the same use, enhance the volumes within the same building and bring overhead light to intermediate floors … Few times subtracting has added so much!

Basic principles

We started the project thinking about how to give shape to the shape already defined by the general proposal for the organization of the campus, and at the same time solve the specific programmatic requirements of the civil registry building.

We propose an exercise of geometric debugging in order to reach its fundamental components: straight lines and planes that, cut by the circular line, give rise to the cylindrical object. This way, through an effort of geometric abstraction, we concretize the project.

Relationships with the environment

The orientation of the grid that organizes and modulates the project in plan is generated from the guidelines of the general plan. The grouping and location of the accesses drives the positioning of private and public areas of the building. The façade proposal absorbs the exterior environment into the building, while projecting its internal life to the exterior. The urban forest penetrates the interior of the building through its perimeter voids.

The orthogonal grid

The grid that gives rise to the succession of defined spaces and orthogonal geometry facilitates the orientation of the users. The structural walls guide the rhythm, and their execution is made simple thanks to the rectilinear geometry.

The intersection of the three-dimensional structure (walls and slabs) with the circular outline of the perimeter gives rise to the compositional order of the facade. The orthogonal grid that generates and orders everything.

The plot is located in a residential environment of small-scale buildings, intended for single-family housing. The only building that does not meet these criteria of land occupation is the senior residence on the neighboring plot to the north. The concept of the proposal is based on two blocks that seek to make a transition between the two types of land occupation.

The position of the buildings within the plot responds to the search for the maximum sun exposure in each of the housing units, respecting both the building limits and the need to have units with a double orientation, allowing cross ventilation and compacting the circulation in the common areas. This way, one building is facing the main street, giving rise to residential units facing northeast and southwest, while the other seeks the orientation of the public space of the neighboring plot, helping to delimit the free area of ​​the senior residence and the intervention itself; its orientation is southeast and northwest.

We chose to oversize the housing units of each of the two blocks and by emptying the units in excess, generate a porch open to the green area on the ground floor. At the same time, through the disintegration of the volumes on the upper floors, we obtained social spaces that enrich the common areas.

The first reference of the Curia´s House dates from 1490, rising on the walls that were part of the triple Arabic defensive enclosure of the district of Dalt Vila. The new use is born from the declaration of the monumental complex of Dalt Vila as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, becoming the information point and visitor center “Madina Yabisa”.

Once the previous archaeological excavations have been carried out, the proposal responds to the new public use, restoring and valuing the singular elements and the recovered structures, and suppressing the added ones. The totality of the complex is restored and the building is extended towards the back garden located outside the walls.

The project is understood as a journey through history, between the ancient walls of the triple Arab enclosure (located below the square-viewpoint) and between the two towers that define the intervention, connecting with the lower gardens.

The intervention allows the prolongation of the viewpoint of the cathedral square, recovering the space occupied by the old Lonja. The layout of the wall and the primitive Arabic tower, which is visited inside the building, emerge to the surface by the means of a differentiated pavement.

The new square is the result of the extension of the existing one thanks to the transfer by the City Council of the plot resulting from the demolition of an old house.

The presence of a large porch, at a different level from the plot and the street, enriched the design process.

One of the main objectives of the proposal was to eliminate the architectural barriers to make the entire public space accessible to all, as well as revitalize the porch that was totally disused. The previous scheme of flower beds, sidewalks and lanes of vehicles around the square is replaced by a plan of colored concrete pieces that develops between vegetable carpets, linking the different levels of the public space.

Preserving and strengthening the existing vegetation was the argument that helped us position the four large strips of vegetation, which are related at the same time to the cadence of pillars that limit the porch, ordering this way the space of the square. We delimit the strips of vegetation with a series of corten steel lines that cross the square transversely. As if it was an origami game, the steel strips fold up creating a range of urban furniture elements such as sides, bicycle parking lots, bins, street lamps…

The developer’s will is to create a unique building within the new general complex of a total of 620 residential units. The housing typology has been crucial in determining the general geometry of the building.

Typologically, the units have been conceived with ingredients belonging to high-rise dwellings plus the privileges of a ground floor house in contact with the land. This consideration led to the distribution of 3 units per floor, which open up in a fan shape and seek the views and the best orientation in all the rooms, without giving up autonomy and privacy.

The skeleton or structure of the building is brought to the outermost level of the facade, creating exterior spaces protected from solar radiation. In this case, the structure becomes the protagonist, giving a strong character to the final image of the building. It has been applied with great rigor and rationality on all the upper floors and transforming itself into powerful W-shaped concrete screens on the first two floors in contact with the ground. This transition is important as we concentrate the loads at few points in order to minimize the cost of deep foundations.

Occupying a point of maximum centrality, the block of the Miquel & Vincke Armstrong Factory, an important old cork factory known as Can Mario, has been recovered for the use of the town of Palafrugell. It preserves buildings of great artistic and architectural value, with art nouveau elements, chaired by the emblematic reservoir tower, listed as a cultural asset of national interest.

The project starts from the interpretation and topographic adaptation of the environment, generating topological proposals that resolve the different levels of the streets, access to museum facilities, underground parking and the reservoir tower. In this last access we want to preserve the magic of what was inaccessible until now and that is why the entrance is underground, in gloom, and as we begin to climb the spiral staircase we discover its light and its position, both within the public space and the urban context.

From the very top of the tower you can discover a magnificent view of the town and the landscape of Empordà area.