Reinterpreting industrial memory. KNEM Offices by b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos
01/10/2022.
[Poblenou - BCN] Spain
metalocus, JUAN CARLOS MACARRÓN
metalocus, JUAN CARLOS MACARRÓN
Project description by b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos
The project is located in the Poble Nou district on a plot that formed a part of the old jute spinning factory of the Godó brothers, popularly known as “El Cànem”, and which occupied up to three entire blocks of the Ensanche. The existing façade overlooking Doctor Trueta street is being preserved as it is included in the Architectural Heritage Protection Plan.
The program is distributed over three volumes within the plot: two blocks with the facades to each of the streets and a block in the central area that joins them through a large landscaped passage. Despite this organisation in three differentiated buildings, it seems appropriate to create a formal unity that brings together tradition and innovation while at the same time highlighting the industrial past of Poble Nou and the legacy of the “El Cànem” factory. In this way, a continuous masonry plinth runs along the perimeter of the entire building unifying the three volumes into a single programmatic and consistent entity. On this base rest, two glass boxes are screened with an aluminium lattice that evokes the interweaving of the jute fabric fibres. This duality between pre-existing architecture's industrial past and the new building's contemporary vocation reveals itself in contrast between the base and the raised boxes.
The blocks facing the street offer large spaces of open and flexible offices thanks to the strategic location of the vertical cores and the post-tensioned concrete structure; The central volume is conceived as an addition to the offices, being a smaller duplex type, open to the central passage resembling old industrial workshops that dotted the urban fabric of Poble Nou.
Fermín Vázquez Huarte-Mendicoa (Madrid, 1961) architect since 1988. He studied at ETSAM (Madrid) and ETSAB (Barcelona). He leads b720 Fermín Vázquez Architects, which he set up with Ana Bassat in 1997, with offices in Barcelona, Madrid, Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre.
b720 is an international studio. It works globally within its offices in Brasil and Spain, in projects located in a dozen of differents countries.
The work of the studio, which has been showed in several events and museums as the Biennal of Venice, the Cité of París and MoMA of NY, has been awarded nationally and internationally with several prizes, among there are two RIBA Awards, a World Architecture Festival award, four awards ASPRIMA-SIMA, the Emporis Skyscraper Award and the European Public Urban Space award.
Among his best-known projects there are the Agbar Tower -with Jean Nouvel Architectures-, Lérida's airport, the Plaza del Torico in Teruel, La Mola Conference Centre in Barcelona, the City of Justice of Barcelona and the building for de America Cup in Valencia -both with David Chipperfield Architects- and the Gran Casino Costa Brava in Lloret de Mar. Currently working, among other projects, on the new Mercat dels Encants in Barcelona, the new international airport of Cuzco in Perú, the regeneration of the Waterfront of Cais Mauá of Porto Alegre, a new neighbourhood for 70.000 residents in Brasilia and in several high buildings in Sao Paulo.
He usually combines the proffesional practise with teaching. He has been teacher at ETSAB, at l'École d'Architecture et Paysage de Burdeos, at Universidad Europea de Madrid and he has given courses and conferences large universities and institutions all over the world.