Architecture practice Ida, led by Xavier Isart Torruella and Maria Domínguez Guasch, was commissioned to project the radical reform of an industrial building to transform it into a new office building, renovating the interior and reformulating the envelope. The building is located in the Poblenou neighborhood, an area characterized by a wide range of technology offices and new technologies, in Barcelona.

The building was built in 1966. Its exceptional typology, with 4 floors 5 meters high that incorporate half levels, marks the objective of the project that focuses on enhancing the global perception of double-height spaces, which conditioned the reorganize the interior routes, without this meaning the loss of identity of the building.

Ida moves the access stairs to the mezzanines from the central space to the back of the floor to free up the double-height workspace as much as possible. Under the mezzanines are the kitchens, services and warehouses.

In the mezzanines the meeting rooms are placed which, with this new arrangement, acquire a symbolic character and become visible from any point of the work space, fostering the relationship between different programmatic units.


Office building by Ida. Photograph by Del Rio Bani.

Materials are mainly steel and concrete, to preserve the original industrial character of the building. Each floor is colored with a different shade of green, in the form of a gradient from dark to light, from the street to the roof.

The old roof is transformed so that it becomes flat and passable, with a pergola and an arrangement of green elements. The rear façade is reformed to facilitate the entry of natural light from the interior spaces. The main façade is only reformed on the ground floor.


Office building by Ida. Photograph by Del Rio Bani.

Description of project by Ida

The building is located in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona, an environment that is in a radical metamorphosis process. The project consists in transforming an industrial building into an office one and the intervention affects the entire interior space and reformulates part of the envelope.

The existing building dates from 1966 and has an exceptional typology, with 4 floors which are 5-meters high and incorporate half partial levels.

Type plant
The goal of the intervention is to enhance the overall perception of the double-height spaces by reorganizing the user movement within the space and keeping the essence of the current building.

To achieve this the access stairs to the mezzanines, currently located in the central space are being moved to the back of the floor, freeing up the double-height work space as much as possible. Kitchens, services and warehouses are now concentrated under the mezzanines and form a compact nucleus along with the building's vertical communications. The geometry of this core accompanies the user on the access route to the staircase. The meeting rooms are located in the mezzanines, which with this new arrangement acquire a symbolic character and become visible from any point in the workspace, promoting the relationship between different programmatic units.


Office building by Ida. Photograph by Del Rio Bani.

The intervention is mainly materialized in steel and concrete to maintain the original industrial character of the building. Each plant is coloured with a different shade of green, achieving a gradation from dark to light and from the street level up to the roof.

Enveloping
The main intervention in the envelope is the old gabled roof transformation into a passable flat roof, which becomes one of the singular spaces of the building. A large umbrellashaped pergola unfolds around the core to shelter and articulate the outdoor space. The work in plan and the green elements positioning seeks to enhance the movement and the relationship with the landmarks of the city and also generating a healthy and
pleasant space.

The rear facade is also being rehabilitated and completely opened to allow light reach to the interior spaces. In relation to the main facade, the ground floor is the only renovated. At this level, the elevation is reconfigured in order to follow the same compositional pattern as the rest of the facade.

More information

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Architects
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Ida. Lead architects.- Xavier Isart Torruella, Maria Domínguez Guasch.
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Client
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Cloudworks.
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Area
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2,150 m².
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Dates
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2019-2022.
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Location
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C/ Àvila, Barcelona. Spain.
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Photography
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Ida is a Barcelona-based architecture studio, founded by Xavier Isart Torruella and Maria Domínguez Guasch. They face projects from a multidimensional perspective, attending to a reality that is complex and changing. They propose expressive and resilient architectural responses.
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Published on: May 11, 2023
Cite: "Empowering double height spaces. Office building by Ida " METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/empowering-double-height-spaces-office-building-ida> ISSN 1139-6415
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