LOCATION
Terrassa, Barcelona province
DESCRIPTION
2007
The design competition was to construct a building for the laboratories of the LEITAT Technology Center, which are laboratories for Research and Development in Industrial Innovation.
We won the third prize, although at one moment it seemed that we had won first prize. But for reasons having to do with interpretations, by urban planning authorities, of the possible need to change occupancy regulations based on our proposal, the chance to carry out this ambitious project was lost.
We didn´t propose just a building, which in reality is what was built, but rather it was our pretension to create a Technology Center, with all the consequences that would go with it. That is, public spaces, buildings– in short, a full complex. We designed a reflecting pool that ran along the entire length of the proposed buildings and created a microclimate. There was a main building at the entrance level, which was accessed by a walkway over the pool. Under the pool was the parking structure, and in between the parking and the building there was a moat, a separating space that provided ventilation for the laboratories that were located in the lower level of the building. These laboratories were also ventilated by an airwell on the rear side of the building, where the land sloped up away from the building to the elevation of the existing property.
There were two powerful symbolic visual elements: a large glass wave that was a curved curtain wall from which water fell into the reflecting pool, and a large metal body constructed of photovoltaic panels that covered the space dedicated to an auditorium. With this we opted to achieve a highly efficient and ecological building.
DATA
Architect: Amadeu Oliva i Uriel
Architect Collaborator: Miriam Bello i Gonzalez
Technical Architect: Maria Rosa Remolà i Ferrer
