Àltima Sant Andreu Funeral Home, Nou Barris / Batlleiroig

Architects:Batlleiroig

Area:1064m²

Year:2022

Photographs:DEL RIO BANI

Lead Architects:Enric Batlle Durany, Joan Roig i Duran, Albert Gil Margalef, Helena Salvadó Giné, Anna Lloret Papaseit

Architecture Team:Maria Comas Giménez, Manuel Pedraz Salas, Paula Lladonosa Farré, Marc Ruiz Llorente, Livia Valentini, Laura Florentín Aragón

Landscape:Joan Batlle Blay

Technical Architect:Diana Calicó Soler, Marc Torrella Mayol, Gemma Ramon Mestre, Carolina Valero Ramos

Agricultural And Environmental Engineer:Yago Cavaller Galí

Structure:BIS Structures

Installations:JSS

Builders:VOPI4

Program:Funeral Home

Clients:Áltima, Elysius Europa

City:Barcelona

Country:Spain

Text description provided by the architects. The new Funeral Home Áltima Sant Andreu – Nou Barris is presented as a new facility for both districts, next to the Sant Andreu cemetery. The proposal seeks to integrate into the historical context of the place, enhancing and articulating a system of green spaces in the area.

Promote sustainable mobility. The proposal aims to emphasize the existing and future pedestrian routes in its urban environment, facilitating slow mobility connections through the consolidation of a network of green spaces. In this way, the building not only responds to its current context but also lays the groundwork for future adaptation and connection of the open spaces, promoting sustainable mobility for the neighborhood.

Respect and enhance the environment. The main objective of the project is to respect and enhance the environment in which it is located, integrating into its context through a joint materiality with the perimeter wall of the cemetery, which turns the brick into a unitary element of the new complex formed by the funeral home and the cemetery.

The proposal seeks to dignify the Masia de Can Valent, a historic building currently in deterioration located in the work area. The project aims to create a new complex that dialogues between the different existing and new elements, creating unity and a common language.

Urban integration and materiality. The urban presence of the new facility is dominated by exposed brickwork that wraps around all the exterior faces of the building and its green roof. This new piece is attached to the perimeter wall of the cemetery and is conceived as a volume of simple forms that respect the regularity of its surroundings.

The envelope is resolved through an eco-manual brick that seeks affinities with the existing materials while developing in different ways, playing with the arrangement of its bond patterns according to the needs of the building. The facade closes in areas that require more privacy and a more intimate atmosphere while opening up in the more public spaces to allow abundant natural light through large-sized lattices.

The arrangement of interior courtyards offers natural light and improves the quality of the interior spaces with the presence of biophilia. In this way, the funeral home opens up to the public space thanks to a latticework system created from its envelope. At the same time, the technical areas are concentrated at the back, next to the cemetery wall, so as not to interfere with public use.

Interior layout and light control. A ramp parallel to the main facade of the building, covered with numerous vines, provides access to the building, which is developed only on the ground floor. Its interior is distributed by a longitudinal hall that gives access to all public spaces.

The building consists of four viewing rooms accessed from the main vestibule. These rooms are composed of a toilet, a waiting room, and a room where the catafalque is located. Between the waiting room and the catafalque room, there is a courtyard that provides natural light to both spaces. For the noble areas, materials such as exposed concrete, bronze, or oak wood have been combined, resulting in spaces that are sober yet welcoming.

The interior courtyards are characterized by vegetation. Among other species, a central strip of bamboo has been placed to provide the necessary privacy to the room where the catafalque is located. This space is dimly lit, creating the appropriate atmosphere of solemnity.

The main space of the building is the chapel. It is a hexagonal room with an inclined exposed concrete floor covered in its vertical surfaces with grooved oak wood with two different patterns. These characteristics, along with the suspended luminaires and the marble altar, give the room the ceremonial atmosphere it requires. Finally, the space opens up through a large window to a triangular patio dominated by a Ginkgo Biloba, a tree symbolizing life and renewal.

Biodiversity and sustainability. The building incorporates some of the principles of sustainability that are present in all Batlleiroig projects. In addition to the aforementioned sustainable mobility, the construction focuses on biodiversity and renewable energy production.

Vegetation colonizes all the outdoor spaces of the intervention, making it a key element of the project, promoting biophilia and generating well-being and comfort for users. As for the energy of the building, it seeks to be self-sufficient through different passive systems, such as the use of lattices and vegetation to filter solar radiation, cross ventilation thanks to the different courtyards, and the green roof. As active systems, photovoltaic panels have been installed on the roof of the building, ensuring that almost all of the consumed energy comes from a renewable source.

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Project location

Address:Barcelona, Provincia de Barcelona, Spain