The project’s main aim is to
create a pleasant building for senior citizens, a space where they feel
comfortable and one they can identify with. The construction materials and
finishes used are therefore familiar, warm and comfortable, such as ceramic and
wood, to create a homely, relaxed atmosphere.
The building’s floor plan
keeps closely to the space available in one of the borders of the Príncep de
Girona Gardens. The building is designed to respond to the park: a volume that
partakes in its language, materials and function. It is conceived as a pavilion
in the park, a vantage point from which users can survey everything going on
around them, both in the park and in the street.
The ground floor is
permeable, with a hallway that runs right through the building. The building
itself represents a new entrance from the street, leading into the park. One of
the park’s esplanades, currently paved in wood, will have a new entrance via
the building.
The
tiled roof slopes down the smaller façades to the ground, creating the
impression of a great doorway.
The larger façades, with
great picture windows and timber framework, pick up the motif of the park’s
wooden paving and street furniture.
Exterior
cladding: The
ceramic was imposed as a solution able to clad in a unified way two surfaces
with different functions: the large roof of the building and the side walls,
giving the volume the image of a large portal.
In some
way we liked to think that the materials to "dress" the building are
materials that, as its users, know how to age, get better as time goes on. At
the same time the intention was to provide the building with textures and
materials known and appreciated by older people.
The
cladding was made with handmade ceramic tiles, in sizes 30x10x2cm and 30x10x4cm
for the roof, and special anti-vandalistic thicker ones of 30x15x4cm to coat
the side walls.
For the facade, we used pine wood slats with colorless autoclave treatment.