Architecture firm Bailo Rull Arquitectura, led by Manuel Bailo and Rosa Rull, was commissioned to transform an old warehouse on the outskirts of Sant Cugat in Barcelona into a new office building. The design was developed with the advice of H.A.U.S. Healthy Buildings

The project designed by Bailo Rull Arquitectura is on a site that has seen a significant urban transformation over years and is now one of the central gateways into the city.
"Cities are formed from urban frictions, from street corners. Manuel de Solà Morales in his book Cities describes, 'The corner of two streets makes a city and the city appears when it is built on the intersection, which is its real support.' (2002)"
BailoRull Arquitectura.

The new building designed by Bailo Rull Arquitectura has 8 floors in which, in addition to office space, there are services for common use such as multipurpose rooms, a landscaped and accessible roof on the first floor, a dining room, and interior and exterior spaces for activities. related to wellness.

For every 7.2 square meters of office space inside, Slow users have 1 square meter outdoors.

Unlike typical office buildings that are often designed with identical facades, Slow BCN has distinct facades that seek thermal efficiency: a glazed curtain wall to the north, a south facade with a solar filter of plates and operable panels, and ventilated east and west facades with a perforated industrial sheet metal finish to control solar radiation.

The building has three certifications: DGNB Certification, which determines the degree of sustainability of the building and some elements of the health chapter; the energy demand certification A, having obtained the consideration of nZEB building.


Slow Building Barcelona by Bailo Rull. Photograph by Duccio Malagamba
 

Project description by Bailo Rull Arquitectura

Formation of a new urban center in an old industrial estate.

SLOW office building.

The design of this office building arises from the urban consideration of the context where it is located.

1. Specific Modification of the Original Planning.
The project arises from the beginning proposing to the property and the town hall, the need to change the current regulations taking into account the urban evolution that the site has undergone. The site, where the offices are located, has gone from being an old industrial estate on the outskirts of Sant Cugat to being today one of the most important entrances to the city. The modification proposal has consisted of changing the original volumetry of a 3-story industrial warehouse occupying the entire site, to a new 9-story high-rise building. The volume change allows, without increasing buildability, to define new access to the city, recognizing and revealing a new area of ​​centrality originally latent in the site. The modification is sensitive to the public activity that takes place in the old neighboring building of the Merkantic and promotes the formation of new pedestrian routes.

2. Structure.
The project is defined from a structure that allows the development of a staggering volume that places the new volume of offices facing the roundabout of accesses to the city. A pillar branches out into inclined beams, until it forms, three-dimensionally, the truss of the main façade of the building.

3. Sustainability.
The punctual modification has allowed the proposed volumetry to adequately respond to the solar orientation of the site. A narrow and long volume, which takes the full length of the original industrial site, is defined by facades that take advantage of the different solar conditions. The East and West matte facades are finished with a simple solution of metal ventilated facade that gives the building an image of industrial construction. The south façade is resolved with depleted solar protection that forms a climatic cushion that improves the thermal behavior of the building. And the North façade is defined by a wooden structure curtain wall that helps to comfort the internal use of the offices.

4. Green roof and Health.
The new volume allows the construction of a landscaped terrace on the commercial volume of the car dealership. A green space for users that will allow them to have a workplace and relationship with the outside world.

A modern cover. We like to imagine Le Corbusier doing his morning physical exercises.

How can we imagine an office space today? Health and gym.

More information

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Architects
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BailoRull Arquitectura. Manuel Bailo, Rosa Rull. Project Director.- Josep Puigdemont.
 
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Design team
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Julià García.
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Collaborators
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Structural Architect.- S_4 Arquitectes.
Quantity Surveyor.- Jose Antonio Quesada y Joel Vives.
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Client
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MARCOVE + HAUS.
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Builder
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MARCOVE.
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Area
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15,000 sqm.
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Dates
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Design.- 2016.
Breaking ground.- July 2018.
Completed.- 2020.
Delivery.- September 2021.
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Location
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Carrer Cerdanya 10-12, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
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Photography
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Duccio Malagamba.
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BailoRull Arquitectura is an architectural firm founded by Manuel Bailo Esteve and Rosa Rull Bertran in Barcelona in 1995 when they finished their studies.  From the beginning combines professional activity with research and teaching. Manuel Bailo is currently a full professor at the School of Architecture of the University of Virginia (UVA) and Rosa Rull is an associate professor at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Vallés, of the Polytechnic University of Cataluña.

Since its inception, the studio has combined professional activity with research and teaching. Manuel Bailo is currently a full professor at the School of Architecture of the University of Virginia (UVA) and Rosa Rull is an associate professor at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Vallés, of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Her work includes a wide range of projects, moving from the urban scale to interior design. It has been widely published and awarded.

Some of the most representative examples of his projects are: the Jardí 0.96 house; the Ciutat Igualada hotel; the facade and the Manresa Landscape Staircase that was exhibited at the MoMA museum in New York in the ON Site Spanish Architecture 2006 exhibition, this project was also the winner of the prestigious international Contractworld Award in Germany 2010. BailoRull received the first Comercia Space award Arad in China in 2011, as well as the FAD award twice. Recently, his project Espai Natura received the prestigious SARA Award in New York 2021.

His 14 years as a teacher in the Department of Urban Planning at the Escola Tecnica d'Arquitectura de Barcelona and his doctoral research "Urban Catalyst" make him a specialist in how public space is activated.
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