Hotel ME, with its 29,334 m2 and 259 rooms, is located in the city’s brand new 22@ District, Barcelona’s enclave of technological, economic, social and urban innovation, an environment that the hotel reflects perfectly, making it an ideal meeting point and centre for participation in the dynamics of the district.
Special care was taken to ensure savings in energy and water in the installations, so as to reduce consumption to a minimum. A complex air conditioning system provides heat-recovery for the production of hot tap water at the same time as cold water is produced for the air conditioning. The water from the exterior swimming pool is heated using energy produced by solar panels, while a system was also put together for the separation of grey waters from showers and hand basins that, after filtering and cleaning, can be used for flushing the toilets.
The cladding of the building consists of thick plate-glass, stainless steel rimmed panels that are both rigid and resistant to corrosion, protecting the building, in the manner of a beehive, and allowing extensive exterior views from the interior of the rooms, establishing a visual connection with the cityscape. The skin of the hotel is made up of three types of panels, repeated continuously, windows, filtering panels and opaque panels. This sequence of materials allows each room to enjoy natural light while preserving the intimacy of guests and offering unbeatable views. The qualities of the materials used for the cladding provide endless nuances that fill the exterior surface of the building with expressivity, playing with the light, shining on one side and shadowed on the other, the corners of the towers are transparent and culminate in a kind of assembled point on the perimeter of the terraces.
