Transforming ruins. Museum Oliva Artés by BAAS arquitectura
17/02/2021.
[BCN] Spain
metalocus, CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ
metalocus, CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ
Description of project by BAAS arquitectura
Recovery and transformation of an old 1920 industrial building into a Museum, highlighting its unique configuration in three buildings and interior textures, adding new layers to adapt it to its new use.
The Oliva Artés industrial building was to be demolished in 2008 to make way for the new Poble Nou Central Park, which was to cut off the historic Pere IV street's continuity to which the building is intimately linked. A few days before the entrance of the excavators, a neighbourhood association, dedicated to the industrial heritage of Poble Nou, convinced the town council of the need to preserve the building, which was in a state of structural ruin.
The original project was born out of a competition held in 2009 and aimed to preserve the building's very particular character, especially the richness of its interior space since the exterior had always been surrounded by outbuildings. The project is based on adding the very minimum for its operation, built in a single gold material, which adds a new layer to the ensemble.
A new porch, affixed to the entire length of the main façade, is added to the heritage building in a strategy similar to that of other pieces in the past, seeking an open relationship between the museum and the park.
The austerity immediately following the drafting of the first project led to its fragmentation into different priority-driven phases, which forced us to strip the proposal of everything not strictly necessary, giving the building a simplicity that enhances the existing architecture.
We covered the windows with translucent panels, protecting the original woodwork until restoration. We darkened the room with simple raffia awnings, replaced the roof and laid a concrete
floor. The facility was already open to the public—albeit with no air conditioning—with many exhibitions and conferences.
A lift and a staircase to access the loft floor and the porch and a bar have been built recently. All this comprises a piece halfway between a building and a pavilion, still unheated and in constant renovation, which hosts all kinds of cultural activities, conferences, exhibitions, concerts and films, demonstrating the value and richness of architectural recycling.
Part of the intervention merges with the original building; some railings, one of the walkways, the roof, the floor and the window protections. Others, on the other hand, can be seen in the unique gold-plated galvanised steel used to build the staircase, the second of the walkways, the lift and the porch, with the firm intention of being the figure on this industrial background, to which they nevertheless belong.
Jordi Badia (Barcelona, 1961) graduated in architecture from the ETSAB (Barcelona School of Architecture) in 1989. Between 1989 and 1993 he practiced a professional partnership with Tonet Sunyer. In 1994 founded the BAAS architecture study, Jordi Badia combines his professional task of an architect with that of a professor at the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAB since 2001 and at ESARQ-UIC since 2009. He also collaborates to the newspaper ARA since 2010 and is editor of the Hic Architecture since 2009. Along with Felix Arranz, he curated the Catalan and Balearic Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale 2012.
The practice is currently working on various projects, including the town hall in Montroig del Camp, the headquarters of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and the new premises of the MUHBA (Museum of History of Barcelona) in Poblenou district, Barcelona. The office is also working on the citizens building in Palamós, the extensive rehabilitation of Alta Diagonal office building in Barcelona and the Radio and TV University in Katowice, Poland.