Barcelona Modern Architecture/ Exterior Skins

 (Illa de la Llum)

The area of 22@ in Barcelona, Spain expresses a wide range of modern architecture.  Two of the buildings Illa de la Llum ( Lluis collet & Ignacio: architect) and ME Barcelona Hotel (Dominique Perrault: architect) have very interesting exterior skins that express qualities of transparency and translucency.

The first building Illa de la Llum located along the sea has a very particular system that generates its exterior skin.   Moveable screens are placed over the entire facade of the building creating a very interesting checker board looking effect.  The screens provide a translucency to the building by partially shading the building from the sun but not entirely blocking the view to the outside.  These screens create a wall for the exterior terraces/ balconies of the apartment suites.  This wall can either slide open to allow for views of the ocean or slid closed to provide shade and protection from the hot sun.  The movements of the screens are depicted by the occupants of the apartments themselves, so based on particular preferences the screens movements will change throughout the building creating a constantly changing facade.  The facade is never completely opened or closed created very opaque patches as well as very translucent open patches within the facade.  This always for viewers to see into or out of the building and get a sense of the spaces created within.  The facade is a very dynamic one because of its movement as well as the position of the building.  Its positioned so every apartment unit gets a view of the city as well as the sea.  If viewed from afar or right up to the very details this building is very translucent because if the screens are completely open you can see straight through the building.  Even in the details you can still see the interior of the building through the slits in the screen so the building is never entirely closed off to the exterior. In fact instead of closing it off it takes advantage of its surroundings and compliments them by creating excellent shaded views.

 ME Barcelona Hotel

The second building ME Barcelona Hotel located between the Glories Plaza and the Forum Area has a very different approach to its facade. The exterior is not a screen but a sheet of glass that covers the entire facade.  The hotel is very translucent due to the glass material you can see into the building close up but not entirely in because of glazing added to create privacy and shading protection.  The building itself because of the color blends in almost to the sky and the sea because of its bluish green color creating a sense of translucency within the landscape/ sky line.  Because of its shape/ height is creates a very dynamic landmark for the area.  It looks as if its reaching for the heavens due to its height and exaggerated setbacks.  While the glass creates a transparency and allows for views from the interior, the exterior skin due to the glazing is not very transparent.  The exterior skin creates more of a mirror effect reflecting the city scape and creating a back drop for the city.  This building takes advantage of the views of the city/ sea with its height as well as its shape it provides views from every side as well as giving back to its surroundings with a mirrored back drop. 

San Antoni Library

The San Antoni Library is a very modern design.  It is a rectangular building that uses a void in the building as a passageway to the exterior courtyard.  In addition its facade is a very dark (black) reflective skin with different screen shading devices.  This is a very sophisticated, decorative, and sustainable design technique that helps unify the exterior elements and shade the outside of the building.  The black reflective skin also helps to unify the different parts of the building because the building is made up of several rectangular volumes at varying heights.  Each space inside the building has a view to the exterior courtyard or the street.  The drawing above helps to show spacial relationships between the courtyard and the interior spaces of the building.  The drawing also helps to show the atmosphere of the exterior courtyard as well as show the shape of the library.  In the drawing you can also get a sense of the large contrast between the building itself and the surroundings.  However a photograph would much better show the reflective materials of the buildings facade.  Photographs also help capture more of reality unless the drawing is a high quality rendering.  Drawings help show some of the aspects of a space, such as the San Antoni Library, however they often lack a sense of realism and the actual mood of a space, which a photograph or just first hand experience can provide. (For example, when this was sketched is was done in the rain, however the drawing doesn't reflect this but the photograph does.)  This drawing is effect however in establishing spacial and scale relationships of this library and its courtyard.