KNEM Offices / b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos

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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.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.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.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 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.Text description provided by the architects.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 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.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.