The rehabilitation project of the municipal market of Santa Caterina is one of those works that are systematically being used as a reference for other projects. We recover the material published in the METALOCUS 016 in 2005.
The option of demolishing the buildings was rejected at the outset. The idea was that the market's new look should still intrinsic to the history of the place. Thus, new structures were erected over old ones, mixed in and blended with them so that the whole thing appears as a conglomerate, a hybrid that is at once useful and contemporary yet reveals the building's history. The roof has been clad with glazed porcelain tiles fired at low temperature. These are white paste tiles that allowed us to work with brilliant, transparent glazes. This was particularly important if they were to produce the very crisp colours they had decided on when they conceived the project.
Description of the project by EMBT
Ciutat Vella, unlike other quarters of Barcelona, is a city in itself… this city within a city seems to be the main feature of historical centers starting from this point everything gets complicated. The present planning is unable to manage the complexity of the situation. And the planning, looking for short-term results, has unbearably limited the rules of the game.
The chance of talking about new and old creates the first ambiguity. The shape of the building has an intricate relationship with time. Perhaps we could experience in our Mercaders house something like living -again- in the same places as if inhabiting a place were not other than moving across a place's time.
What has reached the present is modern, useful, contemporary… Furthermore it allows going back in time in order to go forward.
Supporting the demolition as the only way to "solve" the things is another mistake. On the contrary. The key is using and using again. It is like thinking and rethinking things. Architecture is just a way of thinking about reality.
Therefore new buildings cover the existing ones. They mix up; they blend in order to make the best qualities of that place appear. So it is logic to use terms like conglomeration, hybrid, etc… Terms that tries to go beyond the black and white dichotomy.
The superposition of the different moments in time presents the show of possibilities; it gives a chance to the variations games.
To go beyond the most elemental point which defines the minimal life conditions is really hard. However the flow of constant variations over a place gives us the way to work.
To repeat. To make it again. The project must not insist in a particular moment in time, but in inhabiting it.
Our project starts by criticizing the actual planning and proposes a model that allows for adaption to the place complexity. Planning rules which contemplate something more that the street width and the building height.
A first scheme which allows the development of the city complexity and which complies with the commitments undertaken. We propose a model in which it is not so easy to distinguish between rehabilitation and new construction. Where the squares, the constant drawing of widening overflies the street as the only urban mechanism. The shopping points decrease, rationalizing the access and services systems. Creating public space, and residential density. We move the shopping area to Avenida Cambó, reducing its section, opening the old Market construction to the heart of Santa Caterina quarter.
Previously published in METALOCUS below.- Prize “Tile of Spain”. Santa Caterina Market Remodelation. Barcelona | Enric Miralles, Benedetta Tagliablue
published in: M-016 | A016 | p. 134
CREDITS.-
Architects.- Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue. Miralles Tagliabue EMBT.
Competition.
Project Team.- Elena Rocchi, Makoto Fukuda, Ricardo Flores, Fabian Asunción, German Zambrana, Lluis Cantallops, Anna Maria Tosi, Marc Forteza Parera, Anna Galmer, Silvia, Liliana Bonforte, Tobias Gottschalk, Stefan Eckert , Ute Grölz, Cristine, Thomas Wuttke, Luca Tonella, Stéphanie Le Draoullec, Monica Carrera.
Basic Project.
Project Team.- Joan Callis, Makoto Fukuda, Hirotaka Kuizumi, Fabián Asunción, Ane Ebbeskov Olsen, Dani Rosselló, Francesco Mozzati, Francesco Jacques-Dias, Fernanda Hannah.
Executive Project.
Project Director.- Igor Peraza
Project Team: Hirotaka Koizuni, Josep Miàs, Marta Cases, Constanza Chara, Fabián Asunción, Eugenio Cirulli, Santiago Crespi, Gianfranco Grondona, Lluis Corbella, Massimo Chizzola, Makoto Fukuda, Joan Poca, Alejandra Vazquez, Marco Dario Chirdel, Josep Belles. Alicia Bramon, Laura Valentini, Adelaide Passetti, Jorge Carvajal, Andrea Landell de Moura, Torsten Skoetz, Karl Unglaub, Adrien Verschuere, Loïc Gestin, Annie Marcela Henao Ezequiel Cattaneo, Leonardo Giovannozzi, Annette Hoëller, Sabine Bauchmann, Silke Techen,. Barbara Oel Brandt, Mette Olsen, Florencia Vetcher, Nils Becker, Raphael de Montard, Montse Galindo, Barbara Appolloni, Jean François Vaudeville, Peter Sándor Nagy, Ignacio Quintana, Christian Molina, Stefan Geenen, Maarten Vermeiren, Torsten Schmid, Tobias Gottschalk, Stefan Eckert, Ute Grolz, Thomas Wuttke, Luca Tonella, Stephanie Le Draoullec, Monica Carrera.
Consultants.- Special collaboration.- Ricardo Flores, Eva Prats. Engineer Structure.- Roberto Brufau. Engineer Roof.- José María Velasco.- Engineer Housing: Miquel Llorens. Installations.- PGI Engineering.- Ceramic Manufacturer.- Toni Cumella.
Construction: Constructora COMSA S.A.
Client.- Foment de Ciutat Vella S.A.
Built Area.- 17,533 m²
Site Area.- 23,452 m²
Dates.- 1997 - 2005.
Location.- Barcelona, Spain.
Type of project.- First prize in competition, Rehabilitation.
Program.- Market place, social housing, public space and parking.
