Via Laietana building

Promoter: Departament d'Innovació, Universitats i Empresa. Generalitat de Catalunya

Area: 6.490 m2

Location: 8.118.000 € (Contract Execution Budget - VAT included)

Budget: 8.118.000 € PEC (IVA incluido)

Date: February 2013

1st Prize Open Competition. Refurbishment and adaptation of the Via Laietana 2 building for the Comissionat d’Universitats i Recerca.

The project contemplates the adaptation and rehabilitation of the existing building. The proposal aims to fit the functional program provided by the Comissionat d’Universitats i Recerca and renovate the building.

The aim is to improve and update the habitability conditions of the building, introducing the necessary changes to adapt it to the requirements of current regulations, all while maintaining its building characteristics.

In this context, the functional programme is fitted in without altering the building’s volumetry, its façades or the layout of its backbone elements, and recovering singular ornamental elements.

The systems proposed for its installations, construction materials, maintenance and energy efficiency are proposed from the perspective of maximum sustainability.

It is proposed to lower the existing inner courtyard of the island to the basement floor, creating new openings to it and providing more light at the level of each floor, and adapting the central courtyard-atrium that structures the building up to the roof to turn it into a tempered space, all recovering a Mediterranean tradition in this type of intermediate or transitional spaces.

These two actions, combined with each other, provide the spaces with the possibility of creating natural cross ventilation up to the roof vents to acclimatize the building and reduce energy losses and gains with the consequent energy savings.