Located within the space of the former ‘Picarol’ cinemas, in Badalona’s downtown, a sports centre of the Metropolitan chain is conceived. The Metropolitan Gym/Wellness Club is planned within the existing volumetry, maintaining the original skin and creating a new interior skin, adapting the project with a comprehensive reform of the current building. With this strategy, a new building appears within the old volume of the cinema. This building is the winner of the Piscina & Wellness Barcelona Awards 2017 as the Best Wellness Center in Spain.
The space is conceived as a large atrium developed around the void occupied on the ground floor by a 25x10m swimming pool and crowned in the upper part by a glass enclosure as a facade and an exterior terrace on the roof floor. The access is located in the old cinema’s emergency exit. From there, we discover a great volumetry full of activity, light and contrasts. Functional and dynamic spaces, with good natural light quality and controllable external air ventilation according to needs, allow for the practice of multiple disciplines. The functional programme is distributed over different levels, starting with the access on Sant Miquel street, where a lobby/cafeteria becomes the backbone of the entire building. The fitness, directed activities, and machine rooms, are organised around the swimming pool and wellness area to generate visual and light relations between all the spaces in the building. The Club also has two terraces at different levels that enable a relationship with the outside, thus improving the energy performance of the building with a very good level of natural lighting and external ventilation. These factors significantly improve the quality of interior spaces and sports activities developed in the club.
