D414 Hotel

Ros+Falguera Arquitectura

Project description

The Hotel emerges from its context and is the result of the dialogue between the new and the existing, the great and the small, introversion and extroversion thanks to its position. Located at the convergence of several axes, the existing site converses with the modernist monument Casa de les Punxes. Completed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, the building is an heirloom of the architectural "Modernismo"; in fact in his homage, the existing fabric mantains its plays and rhythms. One of the principal design criteria is therefore continuing and adding to this conversation by adopting the modern language and acknowledging the impossibility of a separation between the object and its context. Implementing the concept of Diagonal as an element of comunication, the project argues for the conversion of the existing block into a functional hotel. ligned with Cerda’s original vision of the interior block as an open green space, the lower levels of the hotel provide a mix of public and private spaces, revealing the hidden charm of the city’s interior courtyards. The building thus becomes an instrument of comunication between exteriority and interiority, merging the built and natural environment. Intimate but open, the interior spaces perpetually generate new perspectives of the city. The main façade preserves the language of the existing maintaining its rhythms, forms and proportions while reinterpreting the classical elements through a modern outlook. Drawing on the site historic roots, the façade elements merge into a landscape of shapes that portray the spirit of modernism not only as a formal gesture but also in applying one of the main modernist principles: engaging an innovative design. By use of parametric design tools and cutting-edge, robot controlled manufacturing techniques, the attention for detail of the modernist artisans is brought back to life in the guise of contemporary holistic design solutions. The building has preserved the façade following instructions by the Heritage Department of Barcelona. This preservation has conditioned all the constructive process of the rest of the new building. The original façade facing the street was propped during all the works, adding three underground levels and seven new concrete structure levels to the building. This façade restores the entire original materials used in the beginning of the XX century: stuccos, wood blinds, stone and antic paint. The backyard façade is a modern reinterpretation of the barcelonian gallery, a glass mechanism to merge the interior with the exterior and to buffer sounds, heat and cold. This reinterpretation has been done with a hybrid of a curtain wall and an external thermal insulation composite system with thin plastering, resulting in a very plastic and continuous solution without corners. This interior façade folds into an interior patio that is designed as the atrium of the building. For the interior design the project is shaped around the idea of mixing the old and new, keeping the essence of the art nouveau style of the old building and surrounding with a contemporary interpretation.