The architecture studio BAAS arquitectura, through competition, has managed to preserve and rehabilitate the old Oliva Artés industrial warehouse, dating from 1920, in the current Oliva Artés Museum, located in the city of Barcelona. This old estructure was going to be demolished due to its condition and replaced entirely by green park areas.

The building was saved by a local association and begins to take shape in 2009 with the decision to preserve its architectural wealth over time and give it a new use, taking advantage of the natural austerity of the original project to highlight its interior, adding new and tiny pieces, respecting the heritage of the building and maintaining its authenticity with a new character.
This renovation of the Olivia Artés building developed by BAAS architecture, focuses on its interior spaces to give it new uses of a varied nature, endowing the project with life through minimal elements that try to merge with the originals thanks to materials such as steel, iron, concrete or translucent glass.

The program is organized around its function as a museum, in which a multitude of activities are developed, and although the project itself focuses on connecting its interiors, it also tries to unite with the exterior towards the green areas around it. , with the help of new structures that imitate the austerity and simplicity characteristic of the building, thus preserving its great architectural value.
 

Description of project by BAAS arquitectura

Recovery and transformation of an old 1920 industrial building into a Museum, highlighting its unique configuration in three buildings and interior textures, adding new layers to adapt it to its new use.

The Oliva Artés industrial building was to be demolished in 2008 to make way for the new Poble Nou Central Park, which was to cut off the historic Pere IV street's continuity to which the building is intimately linked. A few days before the entrance of the excavators, a neighbourhood association, dedicated to the industrial heritage of Poble Nou, convinced the town council of the need to preserve the building, which was in a state of structural ruin.

The original project was born out of a competition held in 2009 and aimed to preserve the building's very particular character, especially the richness of its interior space since the exterior had always been surrounded by outbuildings. The project is based on adding the very minimum for its operation, built in a single gold material, which adds a new layer to the ensemble. 

A new porch, affixed to the entire length of the main façade, is added to the heritage building in a strategy similar to that of other pieces in the past, seeking an open relationship between the museum and the park.

The austerity immediately following the drafting of the first project led to its fragmentation into different priority-driven phases, which forced us to strip the proposal of everything not strictly necessary, giving the building a simplicity that enhances the existing architecture.

We covered the windows with translucent panels, protecting the original woodwork until restoration. We darkened the room with simple raffia awnings, replaced the roof and laid a concrete
floor. The facility was already open to the public—albeit with no air conditioning—with many exhibitions and conferences.

A lift and a staircase to access the loft floor and the porch and a bar have been built recently. All this comprises a piece halfway between a building and a pavilion, still unheated and in constant renovation, which hosts all kinds of cultural activities, conferences, exhibitions, concerts and films, demonstrating the value and richness of architectural recycling.

Part of the intervention merges with the original building; some railings, one of the walkways, the roof, the floor and the window protections. Others, on the other hand, can be seen in the unique gold-plated galvanised steel used to build the staircase, the second of the walkways, the lift and the porch, with the firm intention of being the figure on this industrial background, to which they nevertheless belong.

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Architects
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Project team
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Jordi Badia, Jero Gutiérrez.
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Collaborators
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Architects.- Carla Llaudó, Carles Figuerola, Antoni Garcés, Kino Coronas, Victoria Llinares, Xavier Garcia, Mercè Mundet, Mariona Guàrdia, Cristina Anglès.
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Client
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MUHBA - Ajuntament de Barcelona.
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Area
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2,456 sqm.
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Dates
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Started.- 2018. Completed.- 2020.
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Location
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C/ d´Esproceda,142-146, Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain.
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Photography
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Jordi Badia (Barcelona, 1961) graduated in architecture from the ETSAB (Barcelona School of Architecture) in 1989. Between 1989 and 1993 he practiced a professional partnership with Tonet Sunyer. In 1994 founded the BAAS architecture study, Jordi Badia combines his professional task of an architect with that of a professor at the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAB since 2001 and at ESARQ-UIC since 2009. He also collaborates to the newspaper ARA since 2010 and is editor of the Hic Architecture since 2009. Along with Felix Arranz, he curated the Catalan and Balearic Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale 2012.

The practice is currently working on various projects, including the town hall in Montroig del Camp, the headquarters of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and the new premises of the MUHBA (Museum of History of Barcelona) in Poblenou district, Barcelona. The office is also working on the citizens building in Palamós, the extensive rehabilitation of Alta Diagonal office building in Barcelona and the Radio and TV University in Katowice, Poland.

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Published on: February 17, 2021
Cite: "Transforming ruins. Museum Oliva Artés by BAAS arquitectura" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/transforming-ruins-museum-oliva-artes-baas-arquitectura> ISSN 1139-6415
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