At a time of transformation of bank offices, the Mateo Arquitectura studio led by Josep Lluís Mateo designed this bank premises from an experimental approach, which not only aims to achieve an optimal workplace, but also space as a meeting place.

The intervention in the existing enclosure has had the firm intention of enhancing the value of the pre-existence through dialogue with it. Achieving this by not simply adding layers to the original site, but rethinking and redefining the space as a whole.
With the clear intention of achieving an active space open to the city, but private and demure when necessary, the project by Mateo Arquitectura dialogues with the city and nature, merging them in its formal composition.

The language of the site is abstract, and the environmental conditions such as light and sound, are especially careful, achieving nuanced and controlled lights and visions in the atmosphere.
 

Description of project by Mateo Arquitectura

Banc Sabadell Space is housed in a 19th-century building, opposite the National Museum of Archaeology. The green area in front of the museum dialogues directly with the garden situated at the other end of the branch office.

From the outside, the window, raised above the level of the street, directly shows off the workplace, in an abstract, professional but sober environment. The large logo applied to the glass, designed by Mario Eskenazi, introduces a filter between inside and outside.

In the entrance, a vinyl reproducing and monumentalizing the garden within, the work of artist Jordi Bernadó, acts as a filter between the ATMs and the area for independent transactions, and this work area, half-exposed to the outside.

This branch office is divided into two floors. On the ground floor, where the floor folds to smooth out pre-existing changes in level and eliminate architectural barriers, there are also permanent workstations for quick responses to clients’ queries.

Around the central staircase on both floors, a communal space created for meeting and interaction also acts as a separator. On the ground floor, it separates the reception and window area from the permanent and consultation work stations.

The maxim of transparency is followed throughout. Although the spaces are delimited, the layout plays with the separation elements, furnishing and windows, designed to maintain visual connection between the various areas. A feeling of openness while preserving the privacy of employees and customers.

The structure of the big staircase that joins the two floors has been maintained, adding just a lightweight glass floor slab and a railing with a very particular geometry that blends in with the existing aesthetics.

The private area, reserved exclusively for employees, is located on the first floor, overlooking the beautiful interior garden. This area includes the back office and cubicles for internal meetings, and a kitchen and flexible area, where the furniture adapts easily to the various needs: rest, informal meeting, class or presentation, etc.

On the other side of the staircase is the director’s office and various meeting rooms to discuss more complex issues with customers.

All of these rooms can be adapted quickly and easily to the needs of each meeting.

The corporate image has also been redesigned to give continuity and coherence to this stately, sober, elegant line.

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Collaborators
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Installations.- Tasvalor. Structure.- BAC. Furnishing.- Graó. Graphic design.- Mario Eskenazi. Acoustics.- Ivana Rossell acústica. Lighting.- La Invisible. Bill of quantities.- Aumedes.
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Developer
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Area
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550 sqm.
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Dates
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Design.- 2019. Construction.- 2020.
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Location
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C. Serrano 18, Madrid, Spain.
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Josep Lluís Mateo was born in Barcelona (1949) and graduated in Architecture in 1974 from the ETSAB and gained his doctorate (cum laude) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 1994.

Mateo’s practice is based in Barcelona, and he is currently involved in a number of local and international projects such as the new Film Theatre of Catalonia in Barcelona, the new headquarters for PGGM Pension Fund Company in Zeist, Holland and the office building on the former site of Renault factories in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, among others.

With each of his projects, Mateo seeks to connect the practice of construction with research and development in both intellectual and programmatic terms. He works in the area between the sphere of ideas and the physical world of reality.

Academic collaborations and teaching:
Josep Lluís Mateo has been Professor of the Architecture Department at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich (ETH-Z) since 2002. He has also taught and lectured at numerous institutions around the world, including Princeton, Columbia University in New York, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, ABK Stuttgart, UP8 Paris, OAF Oslo and ITESM Mexico. He was Visiting Scholar at the Jean P. Getty Center in Los Angeles from 1991 to 1992. Josep Lluís Mateo is President since 2009 of the Board of Directors of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture. He has been a member of a number of juries and expert committees, including the Quality Committee of Barcelona City Council (2000-2008), and for prizes such as the European Landscape Award and the Thyssen Award.

Recent exhibitions and prizes:
The practice’s work has been exhibited on numerous occasions thanks to its international influence. New York’s MoMA devoted a space in the exhibition “Spain: On Site” (2006) to its apartment building in Valencia for the Sociopolis Project. Individual exhibitions include those at Ras Gallery (Barcelona, 2009), Architekturgalerie Aedes (Berlin, 2004), Architekturzentrum Wien (Vienna, 1998), Col•legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1998),Galerie Fragner (Prague, 1998), Galerie Aedes (Berlin, 1994), Architekturgalerie Luzern (Luzern, 1992) and Architekturgalerie Munich (Munich, 1991).

The work of Josep Lluís Mateo has been awarded many prizes, including:
- Top International Purpose-Built Venue 2008, First Prize. Best International Convention Centre category.
Organized by C&IT magazine, London. Project: CCIB-Barcelona International Convention Centre
- 2008 Archizinc Award, First Prize. Collective Housing category. Project: Sant Jordi Students’ Hall of Residence, Barcelona
- European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2005, Runner-up. Project: CCIB- Barcelona International Convention Centre
- 15th Award of Grupo Dragados de Arquitectura.

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Published on: November 22, 2021
Cite: "A place to work and to meet. Banc Sabadell Space by Mateo Arquitectura" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-place-work-and-meet-banc-sabadell-space-mateo-arquitectura> ISSN 1139-6415
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