CAP Ecuador Barcelona

A soaring volume

We are in the Les Corts district of Barcelona, specifically in an atypical plot where three of its sides are not enclosed.

This project’s development is marked by a complex functional programme determined by the needs of a CatSalut primary care centre (CAP) and residence for people with mental disorders for the Department of Civic Action and Citizenship.

The aim is to resolve all the programme’s complexities in a simple and yet functional manner.

The building has two basement floors, a ground floor, a mezzanine floor and six upper floors.

The basements house its car park, health education offices and staff quarters. The ground floor comprises its entrances, primary care area and paediatric consultations. The mezzanine floor houses the social club and pre-labour service of the residence, while the first to third floors house the CAP clinics. The fourth floor is home to the common areas of the residence and, finally, the fifth and sixth floors contain the rooms for people with mental health problems.

A white volume has been designed that literally soars on its three open sides. By setting back the ground and mezzanine floors, the upper volume floats above the street corner. This effect is further accentuated by the materialisation of the lower volume with an illuminated u-glass skin, acting as a lantern and dramatizing the lightness of the white mass above.

The vertical nucleus has been positioned against the party wall to achieve maximum flexibility in the floor plan, thereby becoming a central courtyard that organises, illuminates and ventilates all the interior rooms.

It is undoubtedly a project that essentially involves simplification and based on this concept projects a special result that displays its own personality.