KNEM Offices
KNEM Offices
b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos
ARCHITECTS
b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos
LEAD ARCHITECT
Fermín Vázquez
PENDANT LIGHT
VL45 Radiohus Pendant
LIGHT SWITCH
LS Cube
LIGHT SWITCH
LS 990
DESIGN TEAM
Elisabet Usón, Cristina Gassó, Maialen Andiarena, Ruxandra Avramescu
LEED CONSULTANT
Green Living Projects
MANAGEMENT AND EXECUTION MANAGER
Tecnics G3
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
BIS Structures
NSTALLATIONS
Deerns
DIRECTOR BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
Copcisa
MANUFACTURERS
JUNG, Louis Poulsen, Unilin, Carmave, Cerámica Vilar Álbaro, Cerámica la Coma, Cerámicas Piera, Deltalight, Esse-Ci, Finsa, Fluvia de Simón, LAMP, Molto Luce, Nofer, RZB, Roca, SIMES, STN Cerámica, Schindler , Signes, +4
FACADE
Pablo Garrido
PROJECT MANAGER
Peco Mulet, Eduardo Varas
MANAGEMENT
Urban Input
YEAR
2021
LOCATION
Barcelona, Spain
CATEGORY
Office Buildings
The office project is located in the Poblenou neighborhood within the district of Sant Martí.
The plot on which the project is developed as part of the former yute spinning factory complex of the Godó brothers, popularly known as "El Cànem", which occupied up to three entire blocks of the Eixample and established itself as the center of the working class life of the time.
The facade on Doctor Trueta Street is preserved from this industrial legacy, included in the Protection Plan of the Historical and Artistic Architectural Heritage of Barcelona.
The office program is distributed in three differentiated volumes within the plot.
Two blocks facing each of the streets and a block in the central area that connects the other two.
A large passage crosses the plot from end to end, connecting the two main entrances with the central courtyard through two large covered areas from which access to each of the buildings is established.
Although the building is resolved with three differentiated volumes, it seemed convenient to create a certain formal, physical, and visual unity that would combine innovation while valuing the industrial past of Poble Nou and the factory legacy.
A large masonry base runs along the entire perimeter, unifying the volumes into a single programmatic and formal body.
On this base, two glass boxes are supported and raised, screened with a double layer of aluminum that evokes the structure of the jute fiber weave.
This duality between the industrial past of the pre-existing buildings and the contemporary vocation of the new construction is materialized in the formal contrast between the base and the elevated boxes that establish a new formal dialogue.
While the blocks facing the street accommodate spaces for large offices that can be grouped or subdivided according to the needs of the tenant, the central block is configured as an addition of duplex-type offices that open onto the central passage, appropriating it and evoking those small industrial workshops that dotted the urban fabric of the neighborhood and gave its streets activity.
The central and party wall location of the cores and the structural typology of post-tensioned slabs in the blocks facing the street seek to minimize the number of pillars to achieve the most open and flexible floor plan possible and a greater use of the leasable area.
In the central passage, a longitudinal planter that snakes along the party wall creates different meeting and resting spaces while generating a large green screen that physically and visually separates the courtyard from the neighboring buildings.
The high density of the garden and the variety of species, both in texture volume, and height, make this set of vegetated spaces at different levels healthier and more inclusive places for the users of the building.
