Meridiana Greyhound Track is built between 1961 and 1964, in the very near ground Avenue of the same name located north of Barcelona. This area had begun to urbanize from the Houses of the Eucharistic Congress of 1951, a process was extending to other operations of social housing that ended framing the building designed by Antonio Bonet and Josep Puig Torné, and brilliantly photographed by Català Roca in the sixties, (These shots are very good also by Simón García).
The general shape of the building is strongly conditioned by the structural solution that determines the presence of three floating figures: the parabolic foil cover, vertical striations of the brise-soleils, and the set of bleachers and terrace. The cover sheet is a regulated form developed by the displacement of a line between two guidelines: a parabolic ground and vertical elevation (on the exterior facade of the building, towards the Riera street Horta) and other satellite elevation straight floor (interior facade). These two lines of different length (107 m on the line parallel to the track), are divided into equal parts, which together define the alignments of the crugias. Following these radial routes the main structure consists of 18 steel beams singing and variable length sloping towards the street at the same angle and supported on a single line of pillars in the central area of the plant is distributed.
The possible sway tensioning is stabilized by linking the deck beams with slab on the outside terrace and the brisesoleils on the inside. Also, two metal struts and bracing work with visually lighten the ends and covered terraces. The historical reference to this ingenious solution is the Hippodrome de la Zarzuela in Arniches, Dominguez and Torroja, held in 1941. perpendicular to the main structure sense openwork straps soul and distributed triangular section, consisting of four rounds (two down and two up) connected to a light stirrup zigzag. The floors are concrete, precast concrete bleachers and the plane of the cover is solved by a self-supporting agglomerated (Virotem) with asflática finished with a dry cloth.
The ground floor is dedicated to service spaces, kennels, toilets, offices, lockers and a restaurant next to the nearby staircase to the paddock area, from where you can contemplate greyhounds at rest. On the roof terrace of the upper floor, the betting area and the bar closes overlooking the street Riera de Horta are situated, wrapping the terrace and stands as a large concavity, from which you can enjoy an excellent view track located to the south. A matching mezzanine with the finish area, can accommodate the space judges, speaker, timekeepers, controls and photographer. The finishes are of great crudity, carpentry laminated structure perfilerías and gray lead, natural chipboard panels, white yodel and faience in brown and amber plasters.
After the closing, many neighborhood movements for the recovery of the dog track building using it as a cultural space for the quarter were generated. A total of up to 35 entities neighborhoods Congrés and Els Indians worked together to decide what equipment were needed. Therefore, in 2009 we proceeded to make a first renovation of the building under the direction of the architects Xavier Monteys, Josep Maria de Lecea, Laura and Marta Lopez Aybar. The work was very conservative, because being a listed historical building heritage of the city could not make any changes to its original structure. Only the track disappeared and closed the enclosure walls, becoming a space for the ride and the sport as well as enabling a playground. Since February this year the Greyhound Park has been transformed into a business incubator for future entrepreneurs.
Dedicated to greyhound racing, the only pure Spanish race, this building had its splendor between the 60s and 2000. Once ceased its main activity has been combined use in planning. Reconverted park endowments for the neighborhood, its main building, protected, would be turned into a museum. However, 10 years after its closure, this February was opened as a business incubator.
More information
Antoni Bonet i Castellana, Antoni Bonet i Castellana, known as Antonio Bonet (Barcelona, August 13, 1913 – September 13, 1989), was a Spanish architect, urban planner, and designer who lived in the Río de la Plata region for much of his life.
He began his professional career alongside architects Josep Lluís Sert and Josep Torres Clavé, with whom he helped found MIDVA (Furniture and Decoration for Contemporary Housing). In 1933, Antonio Bonet travelled on the Patris II from Marseille to Athens to attend the 4th CIAM Congress (International Congress of Modern Architecture) as a student associated with the GATEPAC group (Group of Spanish Artists and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture), participating in its activities. The trip, which ended in Athens (where he was photographed in front of the ruins of the Parthenon with his colleagues Josep Lluís Sert and Josep Torres Clavé), gave him the opportunity to connect with the leading figures of the Modern Movement.
In 1936, coinciding with the start of the Spanish Civil War, and having just finished his architectural studies, he travelled to Paris, where he began working in Le Corbusier's studio. There, as a student, he participated in the construction of the Spanish Republic Pavilion, designed by Josep Lluís Sert and Luís Lacasa, for the International Exposition in Paris (1937). The pavilion showcased extraordinary contributions, including those of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Julio González, Alberto Sánchez, and Alexander Calder. Picasso was given a prominent space designed to display his painting "Guernica," with mural dimensions of 349.3 x 776.6 cm. That same year, he had the opportunity to attend the 5th CIAM Congress.
During those years in Paris, he participated in the development of Le Corbusier's projects, such as the Maisons Jaoul (1937) and the Water Pavilion for the Liège International Exposition (1938), and met the Chilean architect and painter Roberto Matta.
In 1938, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, Bonet decided to emigrate to the Río de la Plata region, going into exile in Argentina, where he lived for decades, dividing his time between Argentina and Uruguay (especially Punta Ballena). Following the spirit of GATEPAC, he founded the Austral Group with two of his colleagues from Le Corbusier's studio, Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy. With them, he maintained an intense activity in disseminating the principles of Modern Architecture through various avant-garde manifestos and publications.
One of the most paradigmatic expressions of the principles of the Modern Movement crystallized in 1938 with the creation of the iconic BKF armchair (named after the initials of its designers, Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy). It won awards early on at interior design exhibitions in Buenos Aires in 1940 and received First Prize at the First Salon of Decorative Artists in 1943. It has been part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York since 1950, although its design is now officially attributed to the Argentine Jorge Ferrari Hardoy.
In 1943, Bonet founded the OVRA Group (Organization for Comprehensive Housing in the Argentine Republic), where he served as secretary. In 1957, he founded the magazine Mirador, a publication dedicated to promoting modern art and science. His American output ranged from furniture design to urban planning, including projects such as the Reconstruction of San Juan (1944), the Urbanization of Punta Ballena (1945–1948), the Urbanization of Bajo Belgrano in Buenos Aires (1948), and the Southern Plan of Buenos Aires (1956), in which he introduced rationalist thought into organically designed proposals.
Among his built works, the House of Studies for Artists stands out. This corner building, located at the intersection of Paraguay and Suipacha streets in Buenos Aires, was designed and completed between 1938 and 1939 in collaboration with Abel López Chas and Alejandro Vera Barros. The building is considered a manifesto of exceptional architecture, a work categorized by many as rationalist, organic, and surrealist, due to its innovative combination of brick vaults (whose sculptural treatment had been explored in the Maisons Jaoul), elements of folk tradition such as ceramic floors, stools, and objects made of natural fibers, which engage in a dialogue throughout the building with modern materials. The building's attic would be Bonet's home in Buenos Aires until 1941.
In 1941, he designed the group of houses in Martínez, in collaboration with Peluffo and Vivanco, followed by the Daneri house (1944), with Zalba, and numerous residences in the Punta Ballena development, including the Berlingieri, Cuatrecasas, Booth, and La Rinconada houses, as well as the La Solana del Mar restaurant, a central work of this period. He also built La Gallarda (1945), a house for Rafael Alberti in Punta del Este, and the Oks house in Buenos Aires (1953), in addition to unique buildings such as the Terraza Palace, in Mar del Plata (1957), and the Galería de las Américas in Córdoba (1958).
His return to Spain was gradual and was preceded by his attendance as a Uruguayan-Argentine delegate at the VII CIAM Congress, held in Bergamo, Italy, in 1949. There he presented the lecture: "New Clarifications on Architecture and Urbanism." He illustrated the lecture with slides and a documentary film: "The City Facing the River" (1948), made by Enrico Gras, which showed the Bajo Belgrano Housing Complex in Buenos Aires (1949).
From Argentina, he designed the Casa Mur in Barcelona (1944) and, later, the La Ricarda single-family home in El Prat de Llobregat (1949–1963), for which he received the FAD Extraordinary Award (1958–1978). He opened studios in Barcelona and Madrid in 1959 (the Rubio house in Cap Salou, Tarragona, dates from 1959), regularly collaborating with Josep Puig Torné. This collaboration brought him a large number of commissions in Spain, which led to his permanent settlement there in 1963. His urban planning projects are concentrated along the Mediterranean coast: Málaga, Murcia, Tarragona, Barcelona, and Girona. After his return, Bonet was considered a prestigious architect, and in 1960, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, under the direction of Alexandre Cirici-Pellicer, organized an exhibition of his work.
Between 1960 and 1965, he designed, with Puig Torné, the Pine Beach residential complex in Gavà Mar, commissioned by the FAESA company, owned by the Guardans Cambó family. This complex is an example of rationalist architecture linked to the principles of the Bauhaus and GATEPAC. In Catalonia, he produced a wide range of work, from single-family homes—such as the Rubió, Castanera, Cruylles, and Rubio houses—and residential complexes, to apartment blocks and unique projects like the Meridiana Greyhound Track (1962), winner of the 1963 FAD Award, the Recovery Center for the Mutual Metalworkers' Association of Catalonia in Cambrils (1970), and various tourist development projects and radical urban proposals for Barcelona, such as the Montjuïc Plan (with Bohigas and Martorell) and the Ribera Plan (1964).
In Madrid, he developed several highly significant works, including the building with the first curtain wall constructed in Spain, the Banco de Madrid on Carrera de San Jerónimo (1959), various residential buildings, the Retiro II housing complex (1971), and the General Council of Physicians—now the Constitutional Court—designed in collaboration with Francisco González Valdés in 1973. The latter was built between 1975 and 1980, the year it was finally inaugurated as the seat of the Constitutional Court.
Bonet considered architecture to be an organizing force in human life and believed that the architect's activity extended from the design of a piece of furniture to the planning of a city. One of his constants was the effort to integrate the various scales of the human habitat, researching new materials and forms to create architectural spaces and objects that served society.
Published on:
October 12, 2016
Cite:
"A second life for Meridiana Greyhound Track" METALOCUS.
Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-second-life-meridiana-greyhound-track>
ISSN 1139-6415
