The city council of Mataró seeks to provide a new space for the city with mixed uses, in which both public and private areas can coexist. Whereas the public areas will consist of a multipurpose space for workshops or exhibitions (3rd floor) and a cafeteria (ground floor), the private zones will be occupied by offices and work areas for the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (1st and 2nd floor).
The procedure is performed in the main hall of the factory complex Can Minguell (1850). The building’s structure is made of cast-iron pillars and braced partitioned vaults for the floors, and the gabled roof rests on wooden beams. The facade shows the variations and modifications that have taken place over time.
At the moment of the intervention, the aim has been to: 1. Recover as much as possible the original geometry and shape of the building. 2. Conserve the space beneath the floors of braced partitioned vaults and whitewashed, as well as the cast-iron pillars, as a set of flexible open plan over time. 3. Focus services and meeting areas in the pitching of the shed, taking advantage of a change in the structural typology. 4. Retrieve and enhance the materiality of the different characteristic features of the factory complex. Working on some atmospheres (light and matter), to articulate the essence of the building with new programs, different temporalities and scales of perception. 5. Organize the movement of people inside the building respecting the position of the two existing cores and correcting old effects on the original structure. The main core is placed in the structural module adjacent to the northwest facade, using a change on the structure without affecting the main shed. In the southeast facade a new core of emergency is located, a metallic structure of corrugated steel which will contribute to the feeling of transparency.
