This triple sports pavilion, with LEED Gold certification, is the result of a competition promoted by Barcelona City Council and carried out in collaboration with BB architects and Gustau Gili.
The large volumetry that the extensive functional programme generates, in relation to the reduced size of the site and the density of nearby buildings, raises the option of semi-burying an important part of the sports complex, ensuring, through section mechanisms, good natural lighting and ventilation, as well as convenient access and evacuation to the lower parts.
With this solution, apart from reducing the visual impact considerably and obtaining important energy gains thanks to the reduction of the exposed surfaces, the urban public space in front of the building is enlarged. In addition, by moving the building away from the alignment of the road, a free space for the square is guaranteed, which solves the access and the complicated urban grid at this point. With this strategy, a public open space is generated that acts as an urban foyer for the complex and significantly improves the integration of the building in its immediate surroundings. The aim is to extend the public space of the square inwards and the grandstand over the main court, thus removing the underground feel of the main court.
The proposed construction system stems from the recovery of the memory of local building traditions based on early 20th century ceramics. We therefore link a tradition of craftsmanship with a post-industrial attitude by proposing systems based on industrialised ceramics. A building designed for its use, where the materials are shown as they are, providing sensory qualities of their own. The same materials are repeated in all the spaces of the complex, which generates the sensation of a whole, even though each of them can be interpreted individually; ceramic, wood, concrete... these are the materials on which the building is recognised. On the skin of the building, ceramics adapt to the different needs and orientations of the façades. In all of them, empty and full, opaque and translucent or transparent parts alternate in different ways. The opaque parts vibrate with the use of different textures and colours of ceramics in such a way as to break up the whole, while at the same time controlling the natural light that bathes the building inside.
Finally, a single roof is proposed for the whole of the building above ground level, formed by subtle inverted arcs that appear on the façade and which link up, albeit not directly, with the presence of the arcs of the roof of the adjoining La Llotja building. This is another mechanism used for integration and recognition of the strength and uniqueness of the neighbourhood.
