Police Station in Salt
11/01/2013.
By Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. [Salt, Girona] Spain
metalocus, SERGIO CIDONCHA
metalocus, SERGIO CIDONCHA
The catalans architects Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat designed the new police station in Salt. The building has a large presence volumetric with a volume white, massif and horizontal, where one end of the volume rises indicating the entrance to the police station. The building takes various energy strategies.
Police Station by Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Police Station by Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Police Station by Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula.
Police Station by Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula.
Police Station by Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Police Station by Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Interior view of Police Station By Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Interior view of Police Station By Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula.
Police Station by Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Police Station by Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Interior view of Police Station By Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Courtyard of Police Station By Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Interior view of Police Station By Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Police Station by Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Site. Police Station. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Location. Police Station. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Floor plans and sections. Police Station. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Constructive detail. Police Station. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Constructive detail. Police Station. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Diagram. Police Station. Courtesy of Josep Ferrando Bramona.
Interior view of Police Station By Josep Ferrando Bramona and Sergi Serrat. Photography © Adrià Goula.
MAIN STRATEGIES
Location.
The new local police station is placed on the edge of the municipality. The plot is a square in the middle of nowhere, being some majestic trees the only landmark available. Some strict and abstract city regulations even define the site plan position, orientation and height.
Due to this non existing site personality an autonomous and generic piece is proposed for the site, being its final shape purely an answer to functional requirements and restrictions. Thus the program defines a pure parallelepiped without any stridence. Security requirements strongly limits the possibility to do openings on the facade so the result is a massive and solid stone that claims its neutrality through white color.
Exterior.
A (future) garden is the only separation from the street. There are no separation fences with citizens as police has to show itself close and friendly. We propose a white, massive and horizontal volume that clearly formalizes its only public access by lifting one of its extremes and generating a deep porch.
Interior.
Inside everything changes, a double height lobby and a chessboard-like patio placement organizes the entire program and allow light to flood the interior. White color is the main protagonist, its texture changes to characterize the different surfaces of the building: white textured concrete for the exterior, polished white stone as pavement, white brick and wood on walls, perforated white on the ceiling…TECHTONICS AND ENERGY.
The building is solved with a mixed strategy of in-situ concrete structure (as it is not big enough to admit a precast structural system) but it’s regular enough to admit systematized solutions which optimizes time and resources. Patios generate a grid that is used to place main columns. Concrete slabs are stiffened with long beams that emerge on top, generating the roof perimeter and freeing the bottom part for installations to be freely traced. Entrance cantilever is solved with a huge metallic tensor that’s hidden beneath the facade.
All panels are modulated so all the building can be completely solved with a single 3 meter wide piece. What’s different is the length of the panel. All waterproofing solutions (upper and bottom) are precast with the panel so no extra elements are needed. A corrugated texture is chosen as panel finish so joins between elements are almost invisible so the volume can be read as a big massive white concrete cube.
There are different strategies to optimize energetic behavior, mainly based on passive systems:
On one side compact condition of the building assures a very low form factor. All openings are orientated east-west and due to patio’s narrow size (2m) the interior is protected from direct sun radiation at all times but at the same time interior’s natural light levels are high enough, so no artificial lighting is needed during daytime.
A 10cm thick isolation skin protects the building in all its facades, roof and floor. This extremely reduces thermal needs of the building so heating machines are much smaller than usual and consumption is also lower. On summer, strategic patio placement allow cross ventilation to fresh all the building, so air conditioning needs are almost nonexistent. The material condition of the building gives enough inertia so heat peaks can be translated to sunset time, when most of the police station is empty. Then it can naturally refrigerate all night long so it will be fresh again on sunrise time.
Text: Josep Ferrando Bramona - Sergi Serrat.
CREDITS:
Main architects: Josep Ferrando and Sergi Serrat.
Team collaborators: Marc Nadal (Architect), Ramon Subirà (Architect), Anne Hinz (Architect), NB35 Estructures: Josep Nel.lo (Structural Engineering), Eletresjota: Jaume Pastor (Mechanical and Electrical Engineering), Gestoba S.A (Project Management).
Date: September 2010 - November 2011 (Construction), 2008 (Competition).
Client: Local Police - Salt municipality.
Project: Police Station.
Surface: 1.650 m2 (Project), 4.320 m2 (Plot).
Budget: 2.300.000 €.
Site: Salt, Girona. Spain.
More information
JOSEP FERRANDO BRAMONA
Josep Ferrando Bramona is an architect based in Barcelona and director of the Josep Ferrando Architecture office. He has combined design, construction and teaching since the beginning of his career as an architect.
Since 1998 he has been a professor of projects in schools such as ETSAB (Department of Architectural Projects, Housing and City Course, City of Barcelona Award 2016 with the research "Arquitectos de Cabecera“), Torcuato di Tella University of Buenos Aires, Escola Técnica Superior de Arquitectura La Salle (ETSALS), the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the Hochschule für Technik Zürich (HSZT), the Escola de disseny i art Sina and the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) of Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro where he is Director of Master Space Design Methdology. He has also been invited to prestigious international schools, where he has directed workshops and semesters.
In 2014 he participated with the exhibition "In progress Matter & Light" at the 14th Architecture Biennial of the prestigious Architekturforum Redes de Berlin Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Santiago de Chile and the Biennial International Architecture of Buenos Aires. In 2016, with his work "casa entre medianeras", he was part of the "Unfinished" exhibition of the Spanish pavilion of the 15th Venice Architecture Biennial awarded with the Golden Lion of the exhibition. In the cultural field he has participated in numerous juries, among which stand out the FAD 2018 and the XI BIAU Awards, and since 2018 he has headed the Vocalía de Cultura of the Architects' Association of Catalonia, at which time he was awarded the National Culture Prize.
SERGI SERRAT
Sergi Serrat graduated from ETSAV (Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura del Vallés) in 2002, collaborated with different firms from 1997 – 2004 before founding GRND82 in 2004.
Created in 2004, GRND82 is an open platform for young international professionals practicing in distinguished architecture and interior design studios throughout Barcelona.
We approach all of our projects –large or small, public or private – with the same aim: to provide contemporary solutions anchored in social, economic, and cultural context provided through research and constant dialogue with our clients, collaborators, contractors, and users.
We enjoy working under a tight budget or in constricted circumstances because it provides us with an opportunity to research new ideas in program, materials, and construction systems to adapt them to new social, economic, and environmental realities. This research is reinforced continually through the studio´s participation in various competitions and our member´s teaching work in schools of architecture and design: ETSAV, Sint Lucas, ELISAVA, and University of Illinois at Chicago, among others.
The work of our team has been recognized in various awards and exhibitions, both international and local, including the AR+D/RIBA honorable mention for emerging architects, nominations for the 2011 Mies Architecture Award, and the 2010 FAD award. Our projects have been published in magazines such as DOMUS, DETAIL, Architectural Review, ON Diseño and Area.
Act.>. 01-2013
