Mile

Barcelona’s essence

Place C. Àvila 56 / Llull 112. BCN
Client FREO
Type Offices
Total built area 39.400 m²
Completion date December 2022

We recall the essence of Barcelona, of the industrial fabric of Poblenou, of living just a few metres from the Mediterranean. A modern, comprehensive, sober and versatile office complex that celebrates the city and the neighbourhood, the public space and people, industrial materials and nature.

The commission is the result of a two-phase restricted contest. In the first phase, we made a proposal for a modern building that made a break from the language of Poblenou. With little time left, in phase two, we dismissed the first phase and came up with a new proposal, introducing brick, small ceramic pieces and working on buildings with windows, lattices, porches and terraces that could have been built 70 years ago.
In other words, the site and its surroundings marked the beginning of the process, not the destination or the end.

The project is located in a consolidated area of housing and industrial buildings, in the same block as the emblematic Industrias Waldes factory. In order to maintain a dialogue with the surroundings, this office complex is laid out in three volumes that play with full and empty spaces through the use of squares, passages, terraces and corners that allow its large size to be diluted and to bring people closer together.

The building holds the highest certification in sustainability, the LEED Platinum certification.

This urban oasis was conceived as a tribute to the essence of the area's factories and the recognised qualities of brick, which isused in the environment itself

Terraces, communal spaces and passageways appear after breaking down the closed geometry with which the design work began

The concept

These perforated -or sculpted - volumes produce the sensation of walking through a small city, full of nooks and crannies for working, socialising or spending time in, which are invaded by nature: gardens, dunes and large trees. Public and private space blend together: they unite their synergies, boundaries are blurred

The same geometry marked the modularity to facilitate the use of traditional materials together with contemporary construction techniques. Clay brick was exalted as a material rooted in the culture and essence of Barcelona, in façades, lattices, walls, windowsills, beams and pillars. The challenge was, therefore, to work intensely with an associated material at the small scale that had to be modelled to sculpt various forms.