The Can Tintorer Day Centre for the elderly is a building that was projected within an area of urban expansion on the north side of Gavà, a reflection of the town’s process of growth in a district in which a number of housing developments have gone up, along with a range of service buildings and social facilities.
The project for this civic centre consisted of an isolated, two-storey building with an exterior terrace that would allow maximum advantages to be taken of the agreeable climate offered by this Mediterranean emplacement, as well as the views of an area that, while in transformation, has still managed to preserve its landscape qualities.
Formally the building consists of two volumes, one of which is two-storeys’ high and clad with phenolic wood panels. This is the part that houses the more public rooms and areas, meetings rooms, cafeteria, library, games rooms, etc. The other volume, one-story high, is clad in aluminium and houses a single multi-purpose space.
This idea, of two volumes, built using materials of different characteristic and slotted together, allows for the warmth of the sensation provided by the wood in the larger volume to be emphasised, in direct contrast with the colder impression suggested by the aluminium. The two volumes come together in a building that, as a result of this combination of forms, manages to articulate an expression of balance and at the same time present a formal forcefulness.
At the same time, in order to suggest a more compact image, and due to the requirements of the openings in each of the spaces, as required by the program (rooms, offices, medical rooms, etc), the windows were grouped together by means of a steel structure, lined with structural aluminium, creating large horizontal or vertical slots that confer a sensation that is both dynamic and provides the building with a kind of formal order.
