A link between past and future: when industrial heritage coexists with technological innovation.
22@ is the urban renewal area in the industrial neighborhood of Poblenou, a legacy of the industrial past of Barcelona where tradition coexists with technological innovation and artistic creation.
With a morphology based on urban integration and a genetic that reinterprets local features through innovative processes, the Smart 22@ rises from the cultural substratum of the industrial legacy to stand out as a landmark that encourages the values of arts, sustainability, and technology.
Local
Spain
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Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-10-25
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): GCA Architects Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Josep Last name of representative: Riu de Martín Gender: Male Nationality: Spain If relevant, please select your other nationality: Spain Function: Partner Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: C/ de València, 289 Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08009 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 934 76 18 00 E-mail:press@gcaarq.com Website:https://gcaarchitects.com
Poblenou is the neighborhood of the 1000 chimneys, a legacy of a manufacturing and industrial past where tradition and craftsmanship coexist with modernity and technological innovation.
The Smart building connects with the historical heritage and traditions while enhancing innovation and technology. The morphology of the building is based on urban integration, with a deep respect for the adjacent buildings. Its genetics reflects the characteristic chromatic range of the neighborhood and combines the traditional importance of a humble material, such as terracotta, with the new manufacturing processes, which allow to work with larger extruded pieces.
The connection with local features goes beyond architecture and urbanism to enhance the local artistic community by collaborating in rehabilitating the adjacent “La Escocesa” industrial heritage for artistic and cultural programs and creating events to stimulate greater contact of the neighborhood with local artists. Cultural initiatives were particularly significant at an early phase of the project and played a key role in its consolidation.
Responding to the principles of biophilic design, the connection of the offices with the outdoors are protagonists in the project. Smart 24,600m² of office space divided into three buildings with a life-centered design focused on the well-being of its users, connected by a large garden area. It also has a terrace, lounge area, multipurpose room, and many services designed to create community.
The project rises from the industrial legacy and stands out as a landmark that encourages values such as culture, sustainability, and technology. Indeed, it is Spain’s first Smart Building, with Leed Platinum V4, Well Gold, and WiredScore certification.
This new complex becomes a link between past and future. It celebrates the inherited social responsibility of architecture, creating a conciliatory volume able to coexist with the Poblenou neighborhood while expressing Barcelona's values.
industrial legacy
technology
innovation
culture
historical heritage
SMART Building is a complex designed to be an exemplary sustainable building and enhance the well-being of its users. Smart is LEED Platinum certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, one of the most prestigious international certifications. It is committed to energy efficiency, the use of alternative energies, the improvement of indoor environmental quality levels, water consumption efficiency, and the selection of materials. In addition, it also has AAA energy certification.
The roofs have a part destined for the location of photovoltaic panels, but the fact that a high percentage is located on the façade has allowed the rest of the surface area to be used by the building's tenants. Photovoltaic panels have been replaced by amorphous silicon photovoltaic glass that contributes to the building's energy efficiency making the most of vertical and horizontal surfaces. This strategy allows to improve the thermal and acoustic isolation of the building while generating clean energy.
The Smart complex has measures to promote sustainable transport, such as preferential parking for electric vehicles and bicycle parking spaces, contributing to a city that is inclined to be more environmentally friendly. A public area in the center of the block provides the neighborhood with a green lung and the neighbors with space for socializing and well-being. The project has LEED Platinum and Well Gold certification thanks to its significant energy savings, around 32%, and water savings, around 45%. It also has a 574 m2 green space and a 700 m2 terrace, among other amenities like a cafeteria, restaurant, gym, multipurpose room, and lounge area.
Smart 22 @ is designed with the aim of optimizing its energy resources and promoting wellness programs for its future users. Biophilic elements are present on all complex floors and create spaces to help employees carry out their tasks in a space that enhances their well-being. These environments are achieved through work areas with views of natural elements, direct contact with the outdoors through large windows and terraces to favor the biological connection with seasonal changes, plants' presence, and the implementation of natural materials and colors. The terrace design allows users to work or even hold a meeting on the terraces. The Mediterranean climate allows these spaces to be enjoyed freely, achieving a hybridization between indoors and outdoors.
The project is LEED Platinum certified, WELL Gold certified and has been awarded WELL HEALTH SAFETY awarded by the International WELL Building Institute to those projects that defend a new way of building and operating spaces focused on the health and well-being of people, creating more productive spaces through the application of the WELL methodology.
Artistic elements were particularly significant at an early phase of the project and played a key role in its consolidation. In contrast to a more cartesian architecture that maintains continuity with the district's architectural past and facilitates flexibility of use, arts represent the human factor of a factory or office complex, which resides on the curve. The paintings in the accesses and the large functional artwork in the courtyard bring an organic element that animates the planned architectural spaces not only for the users of the building but also for the neighborhood.
These artistic elements constitute a tailored design that amplifies the space and strengthens its character, contributing to the user's sense of well-being and enhancing the positive psycological impact of art on the psyche.
This project drives the neighborhood's transformation towards a more accessible and inclusive urban fabric. Enhancing the permeability and connections of the streets and the interior patio, the project blurs the line between public and private space by transforming the exterior spaces into green living areas for the residents, thus making Barcelona a more porous city. Porosity connects the built environment with the social as well as with nature. Just like in nature, where minute interstices lead water and air may pass through, porosity allows flexibility and interconnection making a more socially inclusive, accessible, and environmentally sustainable city.
The connection with local features goes beyond architecture and urbanism to enhance the local artistic community by collaborating in rehabilitating the adjacent “La Escocesa”, industrial heritage for artistic and cultural programs, and creating events to stimulate contact of the neighbors with local artists. Cultural and artistic initiatives were particularly significant at an early phase of the project and played a key role in its consolidation.
The collaboration focused on supporting artists, promoting artworks and resources for developing their projects. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of La Escocesa, the promoters of Smart 22@ – Meridia Capital - acted as an engine of cultural revitalization: an example of how a project can be socially involved in the environment where it operates.
During the early phase of the project, Meridia Capital supported a retrospective exhibition with photographic and documentary archives that illustrated the trajectory of the artistic center of La Escocesa. They also organized a guided tour of the exhibition open to the public and financed a mural intervention by the artist Zosen.
“Art in public spaces is so much more accessible, and it’s not elitist because people encounter it on the street. They don’t have to go to a place specifically for art or culture to admire or see a work of art. The idea was to recover the spirit of public art of a neighborhood with lots of murals, which is how Poble Nou was in the early 90s. The idea is to also transform the city’s landscape and contribute to that change.” Zosen
During the project's construction phase, Smart was the protagonist of another artistic intervention of the artists Mina Hamada and Kenos on the construction wall of the site: an ephemeral art installation for the enjoyment of the entire public. Synergies between the building and the art center are expected to continue throughout its life through collaborations in the multipurpose room on the first floor of the Smart 22@.
The stakeholders engaged in the project were mainly locals and nationals: Philartrophic, La Escocesa, Ajuntament de Barcelona, and the neighborhood of Poblenou. The artistic organizations that have participated in the project have helped to create the connection between the project promoters and local creative realities, understanding the needs of the communities and creating a new complex in harmony with the existing context.
The engagement of the Ajuntament de Barcelona was along all phases of the project and mainly in the first urbanistic meetings.
Smart is an example of how collective intelligence and know-how sharing can help to build more consciously and consider global interests such as sustainability without losing the con-nection with local heritage.
The project has involved a constellation of professionals covering all the complexities of architecture:
Architecture: GCA Architects
Client: Meridia Capital
Contractor: UTE LA ESCOCESA, Grupo Elecnor+Sorigué
Project Management: Tag a+m
Building Surveyor: BELART ARQUITECTES TECNICS SLP
Structural engineer: BAC Engineering, Grupo SOCOTEC
MEP Engineer: PGI Engineering & Consulting
Façade consultant: Ferrés Arquitectos y Consultores
Designers: Max Enrich
Artists: Mina Hamada, Kenos, Julián García Hernández.
In addition, there has been active collaboration with product companies that have provided the latest technological innovations whose application has allowed this building to be the first smart building in Spain. For example, using Smart technology by Sharry, users will access the space of all three buildings by unlocking turnstiles and doors with their smartphones, book meeting rooms and parking sports and much more. The construction industry advances slowly, but technology and innovation evolve very fast: this is why collaboration between professionals from different fields is essential to be innovative in architecture.
22@, also known as Innovation District is the corporative name given to an urban renewal area in Barcelona's formerly industrial neighborhood of Poblenou. It aims to convert Poblenou into the city's technological and innovation district. Smart Building was designed to blend in with its surroundings, to understand the legacy and innovation that characterize the Poblenou neighborhood, and to promote sustainability and technology in the area: the main values of the innovation district of Barcelona.
Before we delve into the architectural vision, what's interesting about this work is the spirit of the context. A volumetric language was developed to articulate the urban layering seeped in heritage and embrace at the same time a contemporary vision. The project embodies the 'genius loci' through observation and interpretation of the environment. Spaces link to the place with local and cultural details. The morphology of the complex is based on urban integration as a gesture of respect for the surrounding architecture. Its genetics reflects the chromatic range characteristic of the neighborhood. It mixes the tradition of a material such as terracotta with the new industrial processes and its large-format extruded pieces.
Smart 22@ appeals to the social responsibility of architecture. It avoids aesthetic stridency and creates an integrating volume capable of coexisting with the Poblenou neighborhood and transmit the values of the city of Barcelona. The result of this project is a city that embodies its inspirational values without losing its historical legacy and urban fabric.
The innovative character of the project lies in the art of combining innovation, sustainable technology and ecoefficiency with loving handmade craftmanship and respect for the local heritage.
The project rises from the industrial legacy and stands out as a landmark that embodies values such as culture, sustainability, and technology. Indeed, it is Spain's first Smart Building, with Leed Platinum V4, Well Gold, and WiredScore certification.
It is an example that construction can move toward the future, being at the same time aware and respectful of the past.
Detail scale: the project merges the traditional importance of a humble material, such as terracotta, with the new manufacturing processes, which allow it to work with larger extruded pieces.
Urban scale: the Smart building responds to urban integration while standing out with its own character.
Social scale: it creates synergies with the local artistic community, making the most of the arts' positive impact on users' well-being.
We approach all projects from a responsible architecture perspective, where sustainability comes as an inherent part of design. The project is based on a dialogue-centered design result of a joint effort by artisans, architects, engineers, clients, citizens, and other stakeholders. Collaborative design across different expertise looks at how the process can be improved in such a way that collaboration –working together in a manner to enhance each participant's contribution to the design– emerges from the process.
While the morphology of the complex is generated by the context, the technology could be replicated in other projects. The roofs have a part destined for the location of photovoltaic panels, but the fact that a high percentage is located on the façade through the use of Onyx glass has allowed the rest of the surface area to be used by the building's tenants. The application of the amorphous silicon photovoltaic glass in the sprandel areas of the facades is a contemporary technology that improves the thermal and acoustic isolation of the building while generating clean energy.
Smart technology is another tool that allows holistic control of the services of the building by optimizing its use and energy efficiency. A smart building is a structure based on technology that uses hardware, software, and connectivity to manage HVAC, lighting, security and create a comfortable and safe environment for occupants. Smart 22@ is the first smart building in Spain, and it will be an example to study and replicate in other projects.
Architecture can be a powerful transformational tool to respond to some of the global challenges that we are facing such as:
• Good health and well-being.
• Clean water.
• Affordable and clean energy.
• Sustainable cities and communities.
• Life on land and partnerships for the goals.
Locally conscious projects that respond in a cross-cutting manner to today's multiple challenges can achieve the strategic objective of improving the future of our cities and communities.
The project is an exemplary model of the application of passive models typical of the Mediterranean climate, such as the use of orientation, architectural elements that act as solar filters (baguettes of ceramic extrusion), thermal insulation, but also active systems that use the latest technologies in HVAC control (Smart control).
The terrace and the patio, a characteristic element of Mediterranean vernacular architecture, are becoming a key element not only in residential projects, but also in office projects.
This hybrid model of the connection between indoors and outdoors is being implemented in other cultures and more extreme latitudes, such as Nordic and desert environments, generating a great opportunity to export know-how for firms like GCA Architects, which have the integration of the outdoors in their DNA.
