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Alchemika complex

Oliveras Boix Arquitectes designed the renovation of a former plastic factory in Barcelona, creating a multi-use space with a nursery, a library, a resisence for the elderly and a day center.

Oliveras Boix Architecture, Alchemika Facilities Complex, Barcelona, 2016

When in 2006 the Barcelona City Council acquired the Alchemika Factory, a former plastic factory located in the industrial district of Camp de l’Arpa, it commissioned Oliveras Boix Arquitectes to renovate and transformed it into a multi functional building, with community facilities agreed by the neighbourhood associations.

The result is a program of social and diverse character with a library, nursery school, community center and a residence for the elderly with a day center. The height difference between the two street corners, together with the slope of Guinardó Street meant that much of the program had be developed underground. The project optimizes this gap creating separate entrance points to the different facilities. The nursery school is accessible through the upper ramp, while the library’s access is located below, on the opposite corner. The green roof of the school is shared for use as a playground for kids and as a sun terrace for the residence.

Faced with the need to find expansion solutions, the project is articulated through a scheme of solid-void volumes that run parallel to the facade, generating a system of inner patios and double-height interior spaces that allow the natural lighting and natural ventilation. The robust stone plinth grants permeability, while in the upper corner there is a small plaza and a ramped passage that leads the access flows to the nursery school, the community center and the residence. In the lower the existing facade was perforated to host a large door with an interstitial patio, resolving both visibility and access issues to the library.

The architects explain that there has been an attempt to transcend the boundaries of the site and the program, paying particular attention on the creation of a system of outdoor transitional spaces that seek permeability and continuity with the public space while fostering the emergence of new spaces for interaction and encounter.