BAAS & Espinet/Ubach to design the new Vall d’Hebron building
The team of Catalan architects that forms BAAS Arquitectura and Espinet/Ubach have won the award for the new VHIR building and the reorganization of the Vall d’Hebron Campus that was put out to tender in November 2016. Their design was selected from among five finalists by an international panel featuring well-known names from the world of architecture.
The name of the winner was announced on Friday, 12 May, at a press conference held at the Architects’ Association, attended by the Minister for Health, Toni Comín; the manager of Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron , Dr Vicenç Martínez Ibáñez; the director of the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR); Dr Joan X. Comella, and the dean of the COAC, Lluís Comerón.
The dean confirmed that the Architects’ Association wished to highlight the exemplary way in which the tender was conducted, as ‘not only was it very well planned but also demonstrated a great awareness of how quality architecture can transform the city and the hospital’.
The proposal from the team headed by Jordi Badia, Antoni Ubach and Miquel Espinet addresses the internal mobility of the Campus by means of a vertical column of escalators, eliminating internal vehicle traffic and opening up the Campus to adjacent neighbourhoods. The new research building will be structured around a system of courtyards and squares, covering an area of 5,000 m2, which can be extended, with a budget of 15 million euros, partly financed by the ERDF.
Proposal for reorganizing the Campus
The hospital complex of Vall d’Hebron is currently a chaotic jumble of unplanned buildings arranged on a steep slope that is entirely unsuitable for people with reduced mobility. The open spaces are mainly occupied by parking for private vehicles while pedestrian and public transport access is inconvenient. The buildings and their annexes were built as and when they were needed without any kind of overall planning, all with different styles and characteristics and no sense of overall harmony. The professional prestige of the hospital contrasts hugely with its actual image and it is impossible to solve all these accumulated problems with timid or one-off actions that can have no real impact on the situation. It is therefore necessary to have an overall plan, even if its implementation has, by necessity, to be a slow and gradual process.
From this point of view, the construction of a new research building must essentially provide an excuse for redesigning the new complex and generating a sense of order. The objectives of such an ambitious intervention should be:
1. To improve the accessibility of the complex both vertically and horizontally, by improving the cohesion of the Campus not only with the city and its public transport but also with the neighbourhoods of Montbau and Sant Genís.
2. To stop private vehicles from entering the complex and get rid of car parks on the surface and obsolete structures in order to increase the amount of landscaped space and hence rekindle the idea of a park with buildings. To do so, it will be necessary to group the uses of any eliminated buildings into a new space whose location and shape is as discreet as possible.
3. To build a new entrance to the complex that will convey the new image of the Vall d’Hebron Campus.
Proposal for the new research building
The winning project includes a building that seeks to blend into its surroundings with its sustainable, Mediterranean architecture. The proposal is for a single façade situated between the current UAB building and the Traumatology and Rehabilitation building on the land where the hospital’s old laundry used to stand. The layout is defined by three courtyards, one of which opens onto the façade, and continuous terraces. As Jordi Badia points out, ‘the working spaces will be structured around these courtyards, and a large perimeter terrace that will create outdoor spaces between the researchers and protect the building from the sun’.
The tender panel
The panel was made up of Joan Comella, Director of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Research Institute Foundation (FIR-UHVH); Vicenç Martínez Ibáñez, Hospital Manager and Chairman of the VHIR Board; Antoni Comín, Minister for Health at the Government of Catalonia; Lluís Comerón, Dean of the COAC; Tomàs Pumarola, Head of the Vall d’Hebron Microbiology Service; Soledad Romea, Vall d’Hebron Process Manager; Jaume Raventós, Head of Research and Innovation Operations and Institutional Relations at the Ministry of Health; Xavier Montalban, head of the Neuroimmunology Research Group at VHIR; Cristina Garmendia, former Minister for Science and Innovation; architects David Chipperfield, Beth Galí, Carles Ferrater and Anne Lacaton, and urban planner Martha Thorne.
Exhibition of the finalists’ projects
From Friday, 19 May, though to 28 May, an exhibition of the five finalists in the tender was held in the Mezzanine of the COAC. For more information, click here.
View the video of the winning proposal here:
View the presentation of the project at the COAC headquarters:
ArquinFAD loans the collection of documents on the FAD Awards to the COAC’s Archive
The Architects’ Association of Catalonia has signed an agreement with the association ArquinFAD. The dean of the COAC, Lluís Comerón, and the president of ArquinFAD, architect Sílvia Farriol, formally signed an agreement on 31 May giving the COAC access to the documentary collection of the FAD Awards for Architecture and Interior Design.
Since 1958, the FAD Awards have distinguished the most outstanding architectural projects in Catalonia and the Iberian Peninsula. Thanks to its long track record and history, it has generated an important collection of documents, known as the FAD Awards Collection, which includes photographs, panels, plans, film proofs and other documents. It also includes the photographs, documents and plans of the Awards for Urban Buildings and Establishments granted by Barcelona City Council, and the material of the 1988 travelling exhibition, ‘Barcelona City Council Awards for Urban Buildings and Establishments (1899-1930) and FAD Awards (1958-1979)’.
The collaboration between ArquinFAD and the COAC is aimed at making the FAD Awards Collection available to researchers, professionals and the general public in order to disseminate and promote the collection, which reflects the wealth of architectural and interior design activity in Catalonia. In doing so it is essential to guarantee the proper conservation, cataloguing and digitalization of the documents.
In exchange for the loan of the collection for 25 years, the Association has undertaken to catalogue and classify the documents so that all the information can be recovered from the database of the COAC’s Archive, and so all the documents are available to anyone who is interested in them. The process is expected to take up to four years. Subsequently, ArquinFAD will be responsible for digitalizing the documents.
The COAC Historical Archive is collaborating with the ‘Antoni Gaudí. Barcelona’ exhibition at the MMOMA
The Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA) and the company Aurea Cultura are organising the exhibition entitled ‘Antoni Gaudí. Barcelona’, which can be seen between 22 May and 10 September in the Russian capital. The Moscow museum is displaying around 150 pieces including plans, drawings, models, photos and furniture in four themed areas, with the aim of providing clear and educational insight into Gaudí as an architect and his world.
The COAC’s Historical Archive has loaned 11 wide-format photos from that period to the exhibition, taken for the Arxiu Mas, each with a short description written in very beautiful ornamental calligraphy. The images were originally intended for a tribute that the former Architects’ Association of Catalonia paid to Gaudí in 1927 on the first anniversary of the death of the brilliant architect.
This exhibition also enjoys the support of the Spanish Embassy in Moscow. In addition to the collaboration of the COAC’s Historical Archive, other Catalan institutions have also loaned material.
Novetats i millores al Registre Automàtic de documents del COAC
El Registre Automàtic és un tràmit voluntari amb el qual els arquitectes col·legiats en modalitat exercent poden deixar constància d’un document professional en una data determinada. Amb el document que es genera en fer un registre, el Col·legi certifica l'habilitació per a l'exercici de la professió de l'arquitecte o societat professional en la data en què s'ha registrat el document. Així mateix, el document serveix per acreditar, de cara al client, aquesta habilitació.
Cal recordar que el Registre Automàtic no és un visat i, per tant, tots aquells documents vinculats a un projecte de visat obligatori no es podran tramitar per aquesta via.
Més documents i novetats de funcionament
- Ampliació del llistat de documents: la llista actual de 5 tipologies s’amplia a 19.
Així, els documents susceptibles de ser registrats són: Informes, Dictàmens, Peritatges, Taxacions, Certificacions energètiques d’edificis existents, Certificats de crèdit hipotecari, Certificats d’obra en construcció, Certificats d’obra nova (notari), Certificats de façana (paraments exteriors), Ofertes d’honoraris, Comunicats al client, Delimitacions, Aixecaments de plànols, Reconeixements, Certificats de solidesa, Estats d’amidaments, Actes de replanteig, Fulls d'Assumeix direcció i Certificats de final d’obra (arquitecte).
- Segellat automàtic: el nou segell s’inclourà de manera automàtica a totes les pàgines del document i tindrà una posició fixa a la part inferior, de manera que caldrà deixar lliures a totes les pàgines els 2,5 cm inferiors. Així mateix, els documents registrats inclouran una marca d’aigua a totes les pàgines i una portada automàtica que caldrà presentar sempre amb el document registrat.
- Nova nomenclatura: s’ha establert una nova codificació (del tipus R000602B17) per tal de diferenciar-se de manera ràpida i senzilla dels expedients de visat.
- Limitació del pes per a l'agilització del procés: per tal de facilitar i agilitzar l’enviament i recepció de documents, el pes dels fitxers s’ha limitat a un màxim de 20 MB.
- Cost associat al pes del fitxer: els informes, dictàmens, peritatges i taxacions tindran el mateix preu que l’actual (33,24 euros més IVA). Pel que fa als nous documents incorporats, el cost s’ajustarà en funció del pes del fitxer, sent 19 € per als primers 4 MB i 0,6 € addicionals per cada MB o fracció de MB més.
Les factures seguiran anant a càrrec de l'arquitecte o societat que registra el document (no a nom del client).
Expedients antics
Donats els canvis en el funcionament i condicions del Registre Automàtic, tots els expedients existents en el moment en què es faci el canvi es tancaran i no s’hi podran enviar nous documents.
Igualment, deixaran de poder-se retirar segellats aquells documents que encara estiguin pendents de pagament en el moment en què es posi en funcionament la renovació del servei.
Ajuda i accés al nou Registre
El Registre Automàtic forma part de les funcionalitats del Portal de Tràmits de Visat, al qual podeu accedir amb el vostre usuari i contrasenya.
El Departament de Visat disposa d'un seguit de manuals i guies de suport per dur a terme els diferents tràmits, els quals podeu consultar en aquest apartat.
Això no obstant, si teniu qualsevol dubte, us podeu adreçar al telèfon d’Atenció a l’Arquitecte 93 306 78 03 o a l'oficina de Visat de la vostra Demarcació.