Architects:Manciñeiras/Parés arquitectes associats

Area:19267ft²

Year:2020

Photographs:Isabel Casanova Cornejo

Development I Project Management:Manel Parés Toll y Juan Antonio Manciñeiras Vaz-Romero

Project Development:Xavi Piquero, Joan Manciñeiras

Facilities Project:JSS Enginyera i Arquitectura SLP

Structure Project:MASALA Engineering consultancy

Management Of Execution And Quality Control:Ardèvol consultors associats

Construction Company:Constructora d'Aro

Geotechnical Study:GEOMAR Enginyeria del terreny

Program:Equipamiento educativo universitario / Rehabilitación patrimonio protegido

Urbanization Area:42862 ft2

City:Manresa

Country:Spain

Text description provided by the architects. The FUB3 University Complex is located inside the former Manresa’s Slaughterhouse, a modernist building built in 1906 based on a project by the architect Ignasi Oms i Ponsa, and which is currently listed with the BCIL (Cultural Asset of Local Interest) distinction in the Catalan Cultural Heritage catalog.

The Complex is part of the University Campus of the Fundació Universitària del Bages (FUB) in Manresa, a small inland city in Catalonia, and hosts classes for Physiotherapy studies. The project includes the refurbishment of 3 out of 4 warehouses of the historic slaughterhouse, as well as the construction of a new volume and the urbanization of the central space. The project is made up of eleven classrooms, two meeting rooms, a gymnasium with a capacity for a hundred people, changing rooms, and a space for offices and work areas for teachers.

The project works to restore this historic complex while maintaining the value of its pre-existence and preserving its industrial character of the early 20th century, distinguished by the brick architecture with multiple ornaments on its different facades and its 3 symmetrical warehouses shape.

The intervention strategy was outlined to recover and increase the potential of the naves: first, the main nave is divided vertically into three by a mixed substructure of steel pillars and concrete slabs, the second, the different naves are linked programmatically and formally through a metallic porch.

The access to the main nave takes place through a triple-height space, with a tetragonal shape that makes it possible to identify from the inside the unique assembly of the central part of the historic facade. The staircase, which is enclosed in an irregular polyhedron, takes up part of the space generated by the triple height, giving singularity to the central space and linking the functionality of the refurbishment with the original beauty of the historic building.

Another distinctive element of the interior aesthetics of the slaughterhouse is its ceramic plinth, made up of green and orange hydraulic pieces, which contrast with the brick masonry due to their brightness and liveliness. The original ceramic parts have been replaced by new pieces manufactured by Ceràmica Cumella and exclusively done to recreate the original colors of the modernist building.

The new partitions are distinguished in their materiality from the original wall structure and enhance the visual continuity of the building through controlled glazed openings. Both the structure and the vertical partitions are materialized in plain, neutral textures, which do not visually overlap with the brick ornaments on the façade. On the other hand, the brutality of the exposed concrete of the new floor slabs matches the patina of the existing structure.

The urbanization of the central space is conditioned by the position of the existing trees. The urbanization of the site is completed by lateral planters and a central piece that formally replicates the insignia of the FUB.

Project gallery

Project location

Address:Manresa, Barcelona, Spain