© Enric Duch
PROJECT DETAILS:
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An architectural design competition for the landscape design planning of a sports facility consisting of indoor heated swimming pool, sports court and an interior urban block was held by the Barcelona City Council in 2014. The winning proposal was appreciated for its landscape assimilation of a singular greened building in an interior urban block and its pledge to sustainability and reverence for the environment.
Pre-existing conditions of the site:
A desolate and harsh urban environment.
Turó de la Peira Quarter is identified by the profusion of low-cost social housing from the ‘60s and a high density of buildings. A district with a paucity of green spaces and a scarcity of public facilities. The urban environment before the intervention was an unstructured space comprising a sum of residual spaces. A space occupied by a sports court tucked between neighbouring buildings, a pool of outmoded facilities. An urban landscape of hard pavement, concrete walls and total omission of vegetation.
Urban Reconstruction with a Green Infrastructure:
The accumulation of the two facilities in a lone structure provided free space to create a new garden.
A space of permeable surfaces, where the uneven slopes are spanned with green slopes. A place of social exchange, a preface to the new facility. A garden that serves quality of life and work as a support of biodiversity.
Volumetric Integration:
The Building becomes an extended Element of the Garden.
The new facility is constituted with the overlap of two large spaces; that consist of a sports court on the upper floor and a heated swimming pool on the ground floor. The building is set half-buried, complying with the topography and spanning the difference in level between the two streets. The facade to Sant Isle Street has an urban style, with a corner porch that extends the sidewalk and encourages us to enter. The building reduces its influence on the garden with a green gallery that envelops it. The volume is one more element of the garden, not imitating but dialoguing with it.
Naturalizing the Interior Spaces
The design proposal sets specific attention on the perceptions that the space imparts to the user. The natural lighting, the vegetation and the use of wood give a genial atmosphere, distantly from the coldness of separate related facilities.
Energy Efficiency and Self-Sufficiency
Passive Architecture Design
The design of the building has been carried out with passive architecture principles. The tight and enclosed volume in the ground reduces the façade surface avoiding thermal losses. The climatic conditioning and ventilation of the court take place entirely with natural systems. 24 skylights and lateral windows controlled by sensors ensure proper cross-ventilation and lighting. The thermal insulation of the entire enclosure has been selectively treated corresponding to solar orientation.
Use of High-Efficiency Systems
The building includes an aerothermal system that provides the recovery of heat for the production of hot water.
Renewable Energy Production
The photovoltaic panels fill the whole roof deck and generate 95.534 kWh annually.
Construction Systems and Materials Sustainability
100% Prefabricated Laminated Wood Structure. The outstanding features of the wood concerning its life cycle were one of the reasons for choosing the prefabricated system in laminated wood. It was also evaluated for its desirable mechanical performance, its adequacy to the surrounding of the pool, its lightness and subsequent savings in the foundations and its short construction time (8 weeks).
Green Facade
A green gallery surrounds the building protecting it from the sun and setting up a bio climatic space. The plantation system is hydroponic, preferred for its lightness, the endurance of the substrate, the capacity of water retention and ease of installation. From the court, the complete green facade is perceived through the curtain wall, appreciating its flowering changes corresponding to the time of the year.
Water Recycling
A huge water tank situated in the basement collects the water from the roof for recycling and use for the complete irrigation of the green facade through a hydroponic system. In the garden’s site development, the rainwater gets collected in the draining strips provided at the bottom of the slopes and returns it to the water table.
