BRICK-TOPIA by MAP13

For its construction, traditional tile vault system is used, also known as “Catalan vault”, combined with digital form finding tools for structural optimization through geometry, that ensure that the vault works only with compression stresses.

The main intervention is a pavilion that provides the square with a shadowed and sheltered space, that can accommodate several activities and that is used as a meeting point for conferences, debates and projections. It also includes a bar and a chill out area.

Not only, specialized workers are involved in its construction, but also the team of the Project with eventual collaborators and a group of architecture students, through a workshop organized with the Architecture School of Barcelona, ETSAB.

The pavilion enters into respectful dialogue with factory existing buildings, which are also performed using ceramic materials, and at the same time, it introduces a traditional construction system widely used in Catalonia during centuries. This system is inexpensive, sustainable and offers the possibility of self-construction, but requires greater specialization of staff work, which must be composed by excellent builders that can make a craft. The challenge of the layout and construction of a tile vault allow enjoying the work because of its dynamism and the level of expertise required, that might not be needed in other kind of structures, which are standardized.

CREDITS.-

Project authors.- Marta Domènech, David López López y Mariana Palumbo.
Paula López Barba becomes member of the team in the executive phase of the project.
The architects Marta Domènech-Rodriguez, David Lopez Lopez and Mariana Palumbo Fernandez members of the international collective MAP13, presented the project Brick-Topia, which was selected in the category “Build-it” to be constructed. Three young architects who combine their professional career with the academic one. Currently they are employed as researchers in the School of Architecture of Barcelona at the UPC, in the Institute of Technology of Architecture at the ETH Zurich and in the Materials Laboratory of the School of Building Construction of Barcelona also at the UPC, respectively.

The architect Paula López Barba is an expert in public space and interventions for events and she is also member of Panarquitectura.
Construction collaborators.- Aleix Borrell, Alejandro Caballero, Guillem Galofré, Alfonso Godoy, Manuel de Lózar, Irene Subils, Ricardo Santacruz, Rafa Salas.
Lighting project: Colectivo Lupercales

Photography.- Manuel de Lózar
Sponsors:-Constructors.- Sapic + Calaf + Closa + Cots i Claret + Urcotex.-Tile materials: Bóvila artesana Durán + Ceràmiques Piera-Cement: Collet-Andamios: Alco-Metacrilat: Nudec-Tools: Rubí-Solera.- Presolera-Encofrado: Alsina-Topography: GTC-Concrete:Cemex-Iaac, Institut d’Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya-ETSAB, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona.