Aeronautical Cultural Center

El Prat de Llobregat, Spain

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Aeronautical Cultural Center

El Prat de Llobregat, Spain

Firm

BERTA BARRIO + SERGI GODIA + ELOI JUVILLÀ

Type

Cultural › Cultural Center

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2009

SIZE

300,000 sqft - 500,000 sqft

BUDGET

$5M - 10M

Aeronautical Cultural Centre is located at El Prat de
Llobregat (Barcelona Airport) within the business park surrounded by industrial
buildings linked to the airport terminals.
The Cultural Centre is a building and also a Hangar.
It’s designed to host, display and repair aircraft from the World War II and
the Spanish Civil War. Furthermore, it is also designed to host aeronautical
business events, presentations and discussions of developments. The Cultural
Centre is a multipurpose building where public uses (recreational and cultural)
are mixed with trade and economic ones.
This project explores the types and construction
systems of hangars and ancient aircraft. It mixes the past with the present,
the ancient and the new. The outer concrete skin is continuous. The skeleton is
made by a spectacular steel structure designed to support the weight of hanged
aircraft. The roof is made of steel sheet which reminds of the early aircraft.
With 3,200 m2 the functional layout is similar to an
aircraft hangar. The building has two zones. In zone 1 we find the great
showroom with real aircraft and a restoration workshop that has direct access
from the outside. The first floor is part of the exhibition tour and also works
like a viewpoint over the great showroom.
Zone 2 contains the administration area and the auditorium.
The façade, where the main entrance is located, is
raised to look like a plane taking off. The steel structure is what catches your eye first at
indoor space. It is divided in two large areas. The first floor is built with a
huge truss beam with a span of 45m in order to avoid adding pillars on the
ground floor.
Indoor space gets a lot of natural light. A thin
skylight goes round the perimeter of the building. In the central areas
different deck levels provide indirect light through large skylights.
Concrete panels are placed at different levels to
break the flatness and to create a play of light and shadows that varies
throughout the day and provides texture to the facade. This outer skin is
typical of industrial use.