Wall of glass

Architectural Review, The, Dec, 1994 by Penny McGuire

The Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona), designed by Albert Viaplana and Helio Pinon, was set up by the provincial authority and the city council to look at the concept of the city in all its aspects, and to provide facilities for research, for exhibitions, conferences and lectures. Its location in the historic Casa de Caritat on Calle Montalegre makes it part of an impressively cultural belt of the city, near the Ramblas, which runs from the University of Barcelona, past the Biblioteca de Catalunya and the Gran Teatre del Liceu, to the Pompeu Fabra University. To this weight of cultural institutions can be added the nearby Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona.

The new Centre has been installed in three wings of the Casa de Caritat. Once the hospital for the poor, it has been restored. In place of the old fourth wing, which being in bad condition was pulled down, there is a new and surprising intrusion into the old fabric; a glass walled building which closes off the old courtyard,the Pati de Les Dones. With the exception of the entrance hall in the basement (reached by a ramp off the courtyard) and the Sala Mirador at the top, the building is dedicated to circulation systems: to escalators, lifts and ramps which give access to the various facilities in the old building. Viaplana and Pinon (with Enric Miralles) were the uncompromising designers of the plaza in front of Barcelona's Sants railway station (AR June 1984). Here too they have exercised their minimalist talents without compromise, to create a series of internal spaces that in spite of, or perhaps because of, their starkness and austere use of a few materials are strong and even lyrical. Externally, the sheer glass wall off the courtyard comes as something of a rude shock. Here too is the architects' recurring bicoloured conceit; for the left-hand side of the wall is of dark glass; the right-hand side, very slightly offset, is light. The wall rises the height of the old buildings and then cant's out over the courtyard at an angle of 60 degrees. The well-named Sala Mirador, available for public hire, is at this level; and with its wide expanse of wood floor and open severity, there is an echo of a rehearsal studio by Degas. Glazed on both sides, it has vertiginous views into the courtyard and over Barcelona.