1989-1992
FIVE STARS HOTEL

LOCATION
BARCELONA, SPAIN

STATUS
BUILT

AREA
39.600 sqm

CLIENT
BARCELONA PROJECT’S S.A.

COMPANY
OAB

AUTHORS
CARLOS FERRATER, JOSÉ M.CARTAÑÁ

COLLABORATORS
ALBERTO DE SALAS

PHOTOGRAPHER
LLUÍS CASALS

PROJECT
1989

CONSTRUCTION
1992

From 1989-1992, Carlos Ferrater developed a hotel project on the Avenida Diagonal on the southwestern approach to the city of Barcelona. The construction of a huge interior space consisted of a set of planning operations: the first of these was to slide the formwork of the different floors in a play of polygons that would gradually angle and regulate the different surfaces forming the interior facade. This group of changing planes would endow the space with a feeling of dynamism, while controlling its acoustics.

A north-facing plane of metal framework and glass is made rigid, with two brackets absorbing the stresses due to wind by means of a number of horizontal ribs. The steel streamlining constructs the different nodes, accommodating in its pleats the structural framework supporting the glass. This glass wall, plus the openings between the roofs, provides the lobby with northern light, its spatial perception by night being reversed by darkness.

By day the space is projected outwards, accentuating the natural light via the facets and the arrises that make up the regulated interior surface.

By nature the process is reversed, the space closes in on itself, the artificial light emphasizes and retraces the lines, the interior is reflected in the glass, letting the lights of the city to be seen.

The concrete walls made (with sliding formwork), that flank the glass wall, all vertical installations and as function a connecting and circuit-closing device, thus rendering the interrelation of all the service networks possible without intersections.

On the outside, the huge concrete walls lead to a change of scale, helping to situate the building in the landscape. The geometric process, which constructs the geometry of polygonal lines that varies on each level, is obtained by the two irregular polygonal lines which slip between a straight generator and two different arcs of a parabola; The two apexes are never situated on the same vertical and yield intersecting and regulated polygonal surfaces that create the interior facade. Thus, the planes act in a different way with regard to the northern light entering through the great glass wall. If the spectator moves, so does the space and the possibility of different views is almost infinite.

For the construction of the huge interior space of a hotel, on Avenida Diagonal, two 60-meter-high cavity walls were erected, enabling the interior space to be diaphanous.

The regulated surfaces obtained by means of the polygonal play of the decks anchored in both walls and in the vertical circulation core are built with a single formwork that is slightly displaced on different levels keeping with the pre-established geometrical law.

2001
MUSEO NACIONAL DE ARTE REINA SOFIA

LOCATION
MADRID, SPAIN

STATUS
BUILT

AREA
27.000 sqm

BUDGET
81.386.578 EUR

AUTHORS
JEAN NOUVEL , FERMÍN VÁZQUEZ, ALBERTO MEDEM

PROJECT
2000-2001

REALIZATION
2001-2005

QUANTITY SURVEYOR
RAFAEL GUIJARRO, M.ANTONIA GARCÍA, PATRICIA PARRILLA

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
ESTEYCO

SERVICES ENGINEER
JG Y ASOCIADOS

ACUSTICAL ENGINEER
HIGINA ARAU

LIGHTING AND SET CONSULTANT
MICHEL COVA, JOSEP M.CIVIT

The competition held in 1999 was for the extension of the MNCARS by means of complementary buildings on the site adjacent to the building by Sabatini. This process culminated in the selection of the project by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, which was subsequently developed and implemented by b720 Arquitectos and Alberto Medem in the executive project and works management phases. The project involves the creation of “a public square” (that emerges from the arrangement of the new buildings: temporary exhibitions, auditorium and library) and the south-east facade of the existing museum. On the other hand, the strategy adopted for the project is to differentiate and segregate the functions and spaces while perceptually unifying them by means of a large roof that would embrace the buildings grouped round the “public square”.

The space is materialised as a set of interstices that invite the citizen to go beyond the bounds of the public thoroughfare and thus establish complementary functions, a dialogue—the fruit of contrast—between the two constructions. From the massive opacity of Sabatini’s building (the rotundity of its simple orthogonal volume) to the lightness and dematerialisation of the new buildings, where glass plays a leading role in this devirtualisation, along with the recessing of the facades on the upper levels that blurs the contours. All this is offset by the cantilevered roof which restores, at least at the topmost level, what is lost at ground level: the definition of the bounds of the museum in its relation with the city.

1996-2000
CONVENTION CENTER

LOCATION
BARCELONA, SPAIN

STATUS
BUILT

AREA
34.576 sqm

COMPANY
OAB

AUTHORS
CARLOS FERRATER, JOSÉ M.CARTAÑÁ, ALBERTO PEÑÍN

PROJECT
1996

COMPLETION
2000

STRUCTURES
JUAN CALVO, ANTONIO CARRASCO

ACOUSTIC
HIGINI ARAU

GENERAL CONTRACTOR
FERROVIAL – AGROMÁN, S.A.

PHOTOGRAPHER
ALEJO BAGUÉ

The building will be divided into three bodies separated from each other by two interior streets which will allow visual communication between the Diagonal and the Torre Melina gardens and also provide natural light for the rooms. The first body of the building, the main entrance one, will have an ample vestibule and a hall with an amphitheatre for 2.500 conference-members. Beneath this hall there will be another one arranged for banquets (equipped with kitchens).

In the central body of the building a space will exist sized rooms, while on the upper floor there will be a large hall with movable walls so that it may profit from the different forms of natural light, attaining enormous polyvalence thereby. This space will be reserved for more versatile uses, from exhibitions to the presentation of products, demonstrations and the like.

The third sector of the building, quasi-semicircular in shape, will be smallest in size and will house the cafeteria, with overhead light, a travel agency, complementary services and other offices.

MASTER PLAN

LOCATION
BARCELONA, SPAIN

STATUS
COMPETITION

AREA
50.000 sqm

CLIENT
BARCELONA CITY HALL

COMPANY
EQUIP

AUTHORS
XAVIER CLARAMUNT, MANEL BAILO, ROSA RULL