Esplugues de Llobregat. – The Waste Treatment Facility (CTRV, in Spanish) is located on a hillside overlooking the Coll Cardús massif in the municipality of Vacarisses, in the district of the Vallès Occidental. This site is currently taken up by a controlled waste landfill site nearing its capacity limit. This fact has caused its managing body to consider regulating the closure of the facility and to study possible future uses for the area.

The choice of the location of the CTRV has also taken into account different criteria of logistical and economic suitability, as well as the minimization of the environmental impact resulting from the installation and operation of waste management-related activities.

The activity of the landfill site has led to unfriendly topographical alterations and modifications in the natural environment. For this reason, we decided to establish the facilities in those areas where the activity of the landfill had already damaged the natural environment.

Despite the size of the plant facilities, it is intended to achieve the highest landscape integration with the environment. In order to achieve this goal, we pursue a high topographical adaptation, where the impact from roofs and facades is minimized by the subsequent landscape restoration.

The building uses the water and energy generated by the Plant itself. The water comes mostly from the collection of rainwater and the energy needed is obtained from the biogas generated by the waste materials found at the neighboring Coll Cardús landfill site.

The project involves the construction of two large treatment areas under a large roof. These areas, separated by a driveway, are different in height and they sit at different levels. That is the reason why the roof changes its geometry according to the programs and dimensions of each precinct.

The roof will cover a variety of requirements: forced air vents, skylights, etc., and they will blend together by the use of a graphic structure that may be transformed into a landscape roof.

The different circles contain earth, gravel, and native groundcovers and shrubs. Over time, they will balance the impact of the facility without resorting to camouflage or mimicry.

Credit / image : Francisco Urrutia.

Official name of the project:

WASTE TREATMENT FACILITY FROM VALLÈS OCCIDENTAL IN VACARISSES (BARCELONA)
Location: Vacarisses (Barcelona).
Customer: Consorci per a la Gestió dels Residus del Vallès Occidental.
Architects / Designers: Enric Batlle Durany (arch.) and Joan Roig i Duran (arch.) Batlle & Roig Architects.
Collaborators: Xavier Ramoneda, architect, Mario Suñer, architect, IDEMA engineering.
Project date: 2008
Project end date: 2010
Area: 45.000m2
Builder: UTE CTR-VALLEYS (HERA, FCC and Urbaser)
Budget: 74.000.000€
Landscape architects: Enric Batlle Durany and Joan Roig i Duran.

Lighting design: Lourdes Romeo, architect.

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Batlleiroig is an architecture multidisciplinary office based in Barcelona, that combines the practice of Planning, Landscaping and Architecture. Founded in 1981 by Enric Batlle and Joan Roig, it is made up of over 140 technicians from various disciplines. Committed with the environment and involved in the search for solutions to solve our planet's climate emergency, Batlleiroig has been talking about Landscape and Nature since its foundation.

With a holistic view, which always seeks to link the definition of urban to the logic of landscape, a visionary commitment to innovation and a stable, diverse, and constantly formed team, Batlleiroig works in three different disciplines: City and Territory, Landscape and Public space, Architecture and Construction. Areas in which they intervene, trying to be highly specialized in each of them, but without forgetting the essential transversality that is required today to develop any project.

The versatility of their work and the implication that it demonstrates to ensure the well-being and health of people, in addition to recognition, has given them the credibility and rigor to be considered, on the international scene, one of the leading practices in solutions linked to the future development of cities.

Medal CSCAE from the Superior Council of the Associations of Architects of Spain in 2017 for their business performance and FAD 2012 Prize for Architecture and Criticism, they have also received numerous awards for their built work, among which are: The International Architecture Awards in 2020 and in 2014, Landscape of the Year WAF 2018, several Catalonia Construction Awards, IAKS-International Olympic Committee Award 2015, multiple WAF Awards and the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2004.

Their work is presented in the monographic publications: Merging City and Nature. Actar (2022); Batlle i Roig, Building with Nature. AV Monographs Num 20, Arquitectura Viva (2017); Batlle i Roig Architecture 2008-2018. TC Cuadernos (2017); Twenty Gardens 1981-2011. Paisajismo (2011); Batlle i Roig Architecture 1996-2009. TC Cuadernos (2009); Architecture Described. Actar (2000), among others.

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Joan Roig Duran (Barcelona, ​​20 September 1954) has been an architect since 1981 from the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB). In 1981 he founded Batlleiroig together with Enric Batlle Durany.

Since then until now he has developed multiple projects in the fields of construction, urban planning and landscape. He is committed to environmental sustainability and actively seeks solutions to address the climate emergency facing our planet.

His work at Batlleiroig has earned him the highest recognition in Spain for an architectural studio: the CSCAE Medal 2017 awarded by the Higher Council of Architects of Spain. The jury mentioned Batlleiroig as "an architectural studio that stands out for its quality, professional rigour and well-structured and solvent business management. Its collaborative and global philosophy focuses on process control and uses cutting-edge technologies, always respecting the fundamental values ​​of our discipline."

Joan Roig has been a professor of Architectural Projects at the ETSAB since 1984, has taught at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Agricultura in Barcelona and has been a visiting professor at the following schools, among others: Academie van Boukunst (Rotterdam, Netherlands); Delft University of Technology (Netherlands); ILAUD-International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design (Urbino, Italy); IUAV-Istituto Universitario di Architettura (Venice, Italy); Faculty of Architecture (Genoa, Italy); ITU, Faculty of Architecture of Istanbul (Turkey); Washington University (St. Louis, USA); University of Illinois (Chicago, USA); École Supérieure du Paysage de Versailles (France); Technische Universität (Munich, Germany); Universität Stuttgart (Germany), and Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Navarra (Pamplona).

His most notable contributions include his participation as a jury member in national and international competitions such as Europan, the Spanish Architecture Biennial and the European Landscape Biennial. He has also provided advice as a Cultural Delegate of the Barcelona Section of the Official College of Architects of Catalonia, consultant for the Mixed Collection of the Gustavo Gili Publishing House and Cultural Representative of the Barcelona Demarcation of the Official College of Architects of Catalonia.

His publications include the book «Nuevos puentes» by GG. and numerous opinion articles published in specialist magazines, including METALOCUS, El Croquis, Topos, Quaderns and Domus. His work has won several awards and has been the subject of several publications.

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Enric Batlle Durany (Barcelona, ​​1956) is an architect from the ETSAB, where he graduated in 1981 and received his doctorate in 2002. He works in association with Joan Roig. He is a professor of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture at the ETSAV and in the Master of Landscape Architecture at the UPC. He holds a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture. He has been a Doctor of Architecture since 2002 with the thesis “The Garden of the Metropolis” for which he received the extraordinary doctorate award by agreement of the Doctoral Committee of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.sis “The Garden of the Metropolis”, for which he received the extraordinary doctorate prize from the Doctorate Commission of the UPC.

In 1981, he founded Batlle i Roig Architects, with Joan Roig. Their office has developed numerous building projects, urban planning and landscape. He lectures in Landscape Architecture in the Department of Urbanism and Territorial Development at the ETSAV and is involved in the Architecture and Project workshops there, and in the master’s degree in Landscape Architecture at the UPC and in the School of Architecture of Navarre (Pamplona). His work has won several awards and has been the subject of several publications.

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Published on: December 12, 2011
Cite: "Waste Treatment Facility from Vallès Occidental" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/waste-treatment-facility-valles-occidental> ISSN 1139-6415
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