Text description provided by the architects. The Barcelona City Council held an architectural competition for the landscape planning of an interior urban block and a sports facility consisting of an indoor heated swimming pool and a sports court. The winning proposal was valued for its landscape integration of a singular greened building in an interior urban block and for its commitment to sustainability and respect for the environment. Urban regeneration with a green infrastructure. The urban environment prior to the intervention was an unstructured space consisting of a sum of residual spaces. A space occupied by a sports court tucked between neighboring buildings, and a pool of obsolete facilities.  © Enric DuchAn urban landscape of hard pavement, concrete walls and total absence of vegetation. The concentration of the two facilities in a single building allowed to free space to create a new garden. © Enric DuchA space of permeable surfaces, where the unleveled slopes are bridged with green slopes. A place of social relationship, preamble to the new facility. A garden that provides quality of life and serves as a support of biodiversity. Court plansVolumetric integration, the building is one further element of the garden. The new facility is composed by the overlap of two large spaces; Heated swimming pool on the ground floor and sports court on the upper floor. The building is placed half-buried, adapting to the topography and bridging the difference in level between the two streets.  © Enric DuchConstructions systems and materials sustainability. Green facade. A green gallery surrounds the building by filtering the light and protecting from solar radiation on three of its facades. The plantation system is hydroponic, chosen for its lightness, the durability of the substrate, the capacity of water retention and ease of installation. A large tank located in the basement collects the water from the roof for recycling and use for the entire irrigation of the green façade by means of a hydroponic system draining strips at the bottom of the slopes collect rainwater to return it to the water table You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email integrating it into the surrounding garden through a green façade that minimizes its overall impact which was chosen by the barcelona city council from an architectural competition in 2014 combines two overlapping large spaces; a heated swimming pool on the ground floor and sports court on the upper floor by concentrating the two facilities in a single building the local architects have allowed for more free space which it has formed into a lush open garden all images by enric duch bridging the difference in level between the two streets that surround it the façade to sant isle street has an urban character with a corner porch that extends the sidewalk and invites visitors to enter its impact on the garden is minimized with a green wall that wraps around the remaining sides which acts more as an element of the garden providing quality of life and supporting biodiversity the project places special emphasis on the perceptions that the space transmits to the user the vegetation and the use of wood provide a warm atmosphere away from the coldness of other similar facilities protecting it from the sun and creating a bioclimatic space the capacity of water retention and ease of installation the entire green facade is perceived through the curtain wall enjoying its flowering changes according to the time of the year the design of the building has been carried out with passive architecture criteria the compact and embedded volume in the ground minimizes the façade surface while the climatic conditioning and ventilation of the court take place exclusively with natural systems 24 skylights and lateral windows monitored by sensors ensure proper cross-ventilation and lighting while the thermal insulation of the whole enclosure has been selectively treated according to solar orientation the excellent characteristics of the wood concerning its lifecycle were one of the reasons for choosing to build the structure in 100% prefabricated laminated wood it was also assessed its good mechanical performance its adequacy to the environment of the pool its lightness and consequent savings in the foundations and its short construction time (8 weeks) a large tank located in the basement collects the water from the roof for recycling and use for the entire irrigation of the green facade through a hydroponic system architects: arquitectura anna noguera and javier fernández floor area: 4.430 m2 building + 3.952 m2 landscaping location: sant isle street 50-54 08031 barcelona architectural engineer: dídac dalmau energy strategy & engineer: xavier saltó (caba sostenibilitat) sustainability & simulations: micheel wassouf AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style Porcioles embodied Franco’s prototypic Catalan collaborator He played a key role in an operation conceived to clean up the image of the regime; he was criticised for the construction of the sprawling urban Barcelona but he was also praised for achievements such as the Picasso Museum and the return of the Compilation of the Catalan Civil Code © Pérez de Rozas / AFBPorcioles accompanies Franco in his car on a visit by the dictator to the city of Barcelona on 30 April 1960 Josep Maria de Porcioles i Colomer (Amer 1904 – Vilassar de Dalt 1993) has become one of the most paradoxical and difficult-to-interpret figures of the Catalan political scenario particularly due to the enormous contradiction of his role He was on the one hand actively involved in Franco’s dictatorship being responsible for controversial actions such as the construction of outlying neighbourhoods crammed with immigrants from southern Spain Bellvitge de l’Hospitalet and many others; and also for the partial destruction of Barcelona’s modernist architecture with the famous small attic flats built on top of existing ones particularly in the Eixample neighbourhood Porcioles also felt personally obliged to carry out many other works that in view of what Franco’s regime signified in Catalonia For the first time since Franco’s victory in 1939 Porcioles lent his support to displays of Catalan folklore and popular culture such as sardana dancing (forbidden by Franco) and the “festa dels tres tombs” (a celebration in which people bring their animals to receive a blessing) He also did a lot to promote the creation of the Picasso Museum and the Miró Foundation stemming from the compensatory side of the jurist’s personality a man of his time: a sui generis ambiguity which culminated in 1960 with the historic approval by the Spanish Parliament following negotiations involving the mayor of the so-called special Compilation of Civil Law a landmark largely unknown to most people but one of capital symbolic and juridical importance for the country This Compilation adhered to and recovered the former solidity of the historic Civil Code of Catalonia a collective work that enjoyed the consensus of the Parliament of Catalonia according full legitimacy to an independent Catalan Law virtually unique and ground-breaking in Europe restored legitimacy to the series of modern civil regulations that had been suppressed with the Bourbonic invasion of 1714 it symbolised the return of people’s civil freedoms The Compilation was the culmination of a protracted historical process the fruit of the cultural Renaissance and political Catalan nationalism it was born of the highly moderate Catalan nationalism of a man who was close to the dictatorship as if his origins and sense of morality outweighed his political leanings Porcioles also addressed the ambitious Barcelona 2000 plan and a universal expo for the city in 1982 but which brought up the idea of the Olympic Games as the housing estates spread chaotically and vertically built and spawned the speculation and private business in that Barcelona of the sixties had fallen prey to a bout of schizophrenia which would also affect numerous key characters in the regime Franco’s former national delegate of Physical Education and Sports became obsessed with bringing the Olympic Games to Barcelona in 1992 in an ambitious personal campaign designed to clean up his image with his countrymen and also for the sake of posterity in all probability because he had raised his hand firmly during the dictatorship When the dictator hand-picked him as mayor of Barcelona in 1957 he knew what he was doing The loyal Director General of Records and Notarial Affairs of the Ministry of Justice also an experienced notary public in Barcelona and member of Parliament Porcioles would be mayor for four consecutive mandates; sixteen years on the trot But the choice of Porcioles was prompted by the urgent change of tack that Franco was obliged to undertake at the end of the fifties a significant example of which is the return of the Catalan Compilation According to the notary public of Barcelona “apart from the mayor of Barcelona’s power of persuasion is part of the economic change strategy undertaken two years previously and which – according to Jou – became known as Operation Catalonia an attempt by Franco’s regime to garner greater sympathy in our country to allay the suspicion generated by the new economic policy and gain credibility abroad for its policy of opening up the country which could only be successful if it was done through Catalonia” Jou also asserts that “it is a strategy that Porcioles also promoted in the belief that closer collaboration would squeeze greater concessions” out of the dictator but paradoxically the recovered Compilation spurred the regime on and Porcioles thus played a key role in Franco’s regime opening up towards new political and economic models; it enabled his great Barcelona with all its characteristic and disconnected ambiguities to become indispensable for the Spanish state to be able to join the international economic institutions © La Vanguardia news archiveCover of the La Vanguardia newspaper from 21 July 1960 announcing the approval by Franco’s parliament of the special civil law codification and an image of the mayor addressing the court agents as a Catalan integrated in Franco’s regime During his spell as president of the county council of Lleida (1940–43) which had been turned into an army barracks by Philip V and set up the Institut d’Estudis Ilerdencs there a pivotal cultural centre in the area of Lleida he is accorded the merit of promoting a special law for the city dispensing with the regime’s structure; the idea and implementation of the system for using water from the river Ter for the water supply were also his; he also secured the return of the mountain and castle of Montjuïc to the city and fostered all kinds of trade fairs and congresses as well as the initial investments in the underground in the wake of the Civil War and the fact that he had difficulty uttering certain words (he had a stammer) made him more endearing But what mattered most was that he was a notary public who had followed in his father’s and grandfather’s professional footsteps He passed the official examination to become a notary public in 1932 He had also been local leader of the Catalanist party Lliga When the Civil War broke out he eventually fled to France after spending a few months in the Model prison he embraced the natural destiny of many liberal right-wingers: he adapted to Franco’s regime and even adopted its most censurable and negative traits With the slogan of “the best path is from revolution to concord” as mayor of Barcelona he was harshly criticised for promoting excessive inner-city traffic through projects such as the Ronda del Mig the Vallvidrera tunnels and the network of paying car parks he was blamed for leaving the project unfinished because the tunnels cause traffic jams going into Barcelona along Via Augusta This infrastructure was supposed to link up with another major road that would cross the city as far as Carrer Numància and even reach Montjuïc which would have greatly improved rush-hour traffic but which evidently never came to fruition Others have accused him of doing away with the trams and of over-municipalising public transport with the introduction of the city bus because this measure failed to alleviate car pressure in the city the fact that Porcioles made Barcelona a modern city in line with the world’s great cities and also one of the world’s most visited and admired is beyond any dispute El desarrollismo de esa época era muy difícil de controlar Ahora bien hay que tener en cuenta que Porcioles se encontró con un millón de inmigrantes que vivían en barracas y que había que darles sin duda una vivienda en una Barcelona sobre explotada.Por otro lado el presupuesto para desarrollar esos planes era muy limitado fue él quien decidió “profesionalizar ” el ayuntamiento y dotarlo de profesionales que se encontraron numerosos problemas Fue él que convenció en Madrid de que le dejaran realizar una segunda Universidad en Barcelona sin añadir una peseta más al primer presupuesto de dado para la central y sinceramente siempre explicaba los problemas que tenia Barcelona para poder atender a tanta emigración and website in this browser for the next time I comment It is half a century now since May 1968 in France the unrest unleashed a frantic race to show who was the most left-wing and could take over from the PCE-PSUC as the revolutionary party of the working class added a cultural and subjective dimension to the political struggle: the argument was that the revolution had to begin within each individual The Panikkar Year inaugurated on February 5th commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the philosopher and has a double objective: to promote his work and debate on the validity of his thoughts on understanding the current world Puig i Cadafalch left a profound and lasting mark on Barcelona despite the importance of his role as successor to Prat de la Riba at the head of the Mancomunitat of Catalonia In the midst of a major political and social crisis supported by the PSOE and the republican parties called a revolutionary general strike in the summer of 1917 The Russian Revolution was well underway and it raised hopes that were unrealistically optimistic The years of the Spanish Republic were a golden age for Aurora Bertrana not only from a literary point of view but also for her public activism During the final third of the 19th century feminist and anti-slavery thoughts and actions could have consequences The composer and harpist Clotilde Cerdà i Bosch daughter of the painter Clotilde Bosch and her husband Ildefons Cerdà The demolition of a polluting asphalt plant in early 1977 by the very residents who were suffering its effects lay at the heart of the Nou Barris Athenaeum a leading player in the social mobilisation and cultural revitalisation of the city’s northern neighbourhoods after the death of the Spanish dictator an acclaimed performer and an educator who created his own school Enric Granados was deeply involved in the movements that laid the foundations for Barcelona’s solid musical culture In 2014 the Barcelona City Council held an architectural competition for the landscape planning of an interior urban block and a sports facility consisting of an indoor heated swimming pool and a sports court adapting to the topography and bridging the difference in level between the two streets The building minimizes its impact to the garden with a green gallery that surrounds it The volume is one more element of the garden The design of the building has been carried out with passive architecture criteria The compact and embedded volume in the ground minimizes the façade surface avoiding thermal losses The climatic conditioning and ventilation of the court takes place exclusively with natural systems Privacy policy