Nau Gaudí Rehabilitation, Mataró
DETAILS
Site: Mataró, Barcelona
Use: Provisional headquarters of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Catalonia
Declared a cultural asset of national interest BCIN 153-MH
Description
The commission proposes a reflection about the construction of some housing units, the restoration of the chimney, warehouse and small building designed by Gaudí. In the bleaching warehouse, remodelled and restored, we want to give it some multifaceted uses, which require the restored building having good facilities, from both an environmental point of view and in terms of regulations and equipment.
Project
The work to restore and remodel the bleaching warehouse of the “Cooperativa Obrera Mataronense” is full of practical and methodological difficulties. It is about restoring and remodeling a building that is completely dilapidated, and missing information about how it was originally at the time of construction. At the time of construction it was more of a temporary hut than a well-built building.
The commission proposes a reflection about the construction of some housing units, the restoration of the chimney, warehouse and small building designed by Gaudí to give it some polyvalent uses, which required the restored building to have good facilities, from both an environmental point of view and in terms of regulations and equipment.
The proposed intervention involves making, as a first phase, a very detailed and complete survey of the existing building. As a second phase, a deconstruction of the building. As a third phase, the reconstruction of the parts of the building where such reconstruction is possible and a sensible adaptiation to the new program.
Nau Gaudí building is being rebuilt from a volumetric and spatial point of view, but that at the same time, in a way, a new, attentive and multi-functional building is being built.
Due to the impossibility of recovering the original west façade, the proposal plans a new façade that has absolutely nothing in common with the previous one. It is a transparent and opal glass façade, with an air chamber and special treatment that will enable an increase in the natural lighting of the original warehouse, adapting it to the new uses.
Glass has been considered as the differentiating element between the elements of the original warehouse and the new elements. These contemporary materials (translucent glass and transparent opal) are different from the materials of the late-19th century and yet reflect and multiply the parts of the work planned by Gaudí.
In contraposition, the south and east façades are built according to the warehouse façades that are known from a photo taken by Joan Bergós. To comply with all the regulations regarding thermal and acoustic insulation, without changing its original appearance, it was decided to double up the roof and wall of the east façade. A timber framework was placed in the roof with flat tiles seen from below, over which insulation was projected with another flat tile on top. The view of the interior and exterior of the roof is the original one but it is constructively doubled.
This doubling of the roof meant that the loads to the wooden structure increased. The structure of the parabolic arches of the warehouse was strengthened, by means of stainless steel sheets, inserted between the wooden structure of each arch to hide it from view.
Images
Plans
Project Name: Nau Gaudí Rehabilitation
Site: Cooperativa Street, 47, 08302 Mataró, Barcelona
Use: Cultural
Project date: 2003
Construction start date:
Construction end date: 2008
Property: Ajuntament de Mataró
Land area: 660 m²
Floor area: 880 m²
Authors: Manel Brullet i Tenas, Alfonso de Luna i Colldefors
Contributors: Jaume Pinyol, Silvia Salueña
Surveyors: Joan Rivas, Ramón Teixidó, Joan Montero
Facilities: Xavier Brullet
Structure: Manuel Arguijo
Builder: SECLASA
Photographer: Lluís Casals, Miquel Tres, Juny Brullet
Awards:
01- Finalist, 6th Catalonia Construction Awards 2009
02- Winner, 3rd Maresme Architecture Exhibition 2010
04- BCIN (Cultural Asset of National Interest) 153-MH
Publications:
01- Quaderns d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme 250, Conarquitectura 2009
02- Revista ON Diseño 311, Octubre 2010
03- World-architects.com (link)
04- Josep Gracia (Teatres de Catalunya)
05-youtube (link)