View Full Version : [Barcelona] Santa Caterina Market - EMBT Arquitectes
Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue, 1999 - 2004
Reconstruction of an old market and surrounding area, including car parking, housing, shops, public areas and archaeological remains.
26374
Aerial view
Adress:
Avenida de Francesc Cambó, 16 - Barcelona
Opening hours:
Mondays - 8.00 am - 2.00 pm
Tuesdays and Wednesdays - 8.00 am - 3.30 pm
Thursdays and Fridays - 8.00 am - 8.30 pm
Sat 8.00 am - 3.30pm
Closed on Sundays
During the summer there are differences in the opening hours: in July the market is open only in the morning and Friday afternoonns, and in August only in the morning.
The restaurant Cuines Santa Caterina has a differente timetable: from 9.00 am to 11.30 pm everyday, and on weekends stays open until midnight.
How to get there:
Metro - line 4 (yellow line) - exit at Jaume I station, walk up Via Laietana towards Plaça d'Antoni Maura and turn right to Av. de Francesc Cambó.
Bus - line 120 passes in front of the market; lines 17, 19, 40 and 45 stop at Via Laietana
Some web references:
EMBT website (http://www.mirallestagliabue.com/)
Mercat de Santa Caterina Website (http://www.mercatsantacaterina.net/)
reference on A Daily Dose of Architecture (http://archidose.blogspot.com/2006/01/half-dose-20-mercat-de-santa-caterina.html)(also provides some links)
Archiseek (http://spain.archiseek.com/catalunya/barcelona/santacaterina.html)
Architectural Record Project Portfolio (http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/portfolio/archives/0602santaCatarina.asp)
arqa.com article (http://www.arqa.com/informacion.cfm/n.6333.cfm)(spanish only but with some pictures and drawings)
Fotos de Arquitectura (http://fotosdearquitectura.fotopic.net/c821018.html)(spanish website with pictures)
Google Earth placemark:
Coming into Avenida de Francesc Cambó, just after crossing Via Laietana, we start to see the market's curved roof
Closing in we see the old walls under the new roof
The pedestrian space in front of the market
The roof projecting out of the facade
One of the steel columns supporting the roof
In front of the main entrance, looking back to the corner where we were before (entrance to restaurant Cuines Santa Caterina is the last door on this facade)
The whole facade seen from this side (shot a couple of days before, with grey sky)
Entrance. Note the sliding shutters
Entrance seen from the inside
Looking to the side we see the interior facade of the street front shops and the mezzanine volume
From the entrance looking in front we see the steel and laminated wood structure of the new roof, and the tension steel cables crossing the space transversally
These steel cables are stretched between two concrete porticos that run along both sides of the building
View towards the rear facade
Another aspect of the roof structure. Some of the laminated wood arches have a really complex geometry
The previous roof structure along the side facades was kept and is now suspended from the new structure
Cuines Santa Caterina is a nice space to have an informal meal (interior design by Sandra Tarruella and Isabel López)
Now looking outside to the space at the back of the market
The square behind the market
An aspect of the residential buildings in this square
Stitched view from east showing the building and its surroundings
Another view with the facade along Carrer d'En Giralt
Windows to the archaeological space
Inside the archaeological space. The outside square was raised to allow for the preservation of some roman archaeological remains (note the ruins continuing under the street level)
On the southwest side of the building, along Carrer Freixures, the new housing blocks are placed partially over the market
Entrance to the interior of the block, leading to the square behind the market
Facade detail. The shutters have a curious movement, one half is sliding and the other half swings attached to the first one. They are placed in a frame distanced from the wall
One last look at the roof surface as we go away...
Column detail
vOid fantastic thread thanks. I started off thinking 'boring', then, once we got past the roof, I just got more and more interested in the architecture. The column detail in post 29 is just amazing. :not worth
I guess those guys don't use sketchup?
I am inspired to read/see more about miralles' studio the ppb thread (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=895&highlight=scottish+parliament)
By the way it is a disgrace that we don't have a scottish parliament thread, Scottish boys sort it out... Don't we have some insiders here? ;)
What a great market. There seem to be wonderful details everywhere you look.
franjayo
27-02-2007, 20:16
Miralles was another of the very great Catalonian architects. The photos are also an extraordinary record of the details in this masterpiece. Thank you very much!
Wow beautiful building. I had seen pictures of the building before, but mostly for the roof, which I wasn't that happy about. However as I was scrolling past the roof pictures, I liked it more and more. The details are awsome. I really like the facade facing the traditional buildings also, and how the whol square is raised up for the roman ruins. It seems to me to be quite sensitive to the site.
am_i_wry
27-02-2007, 22:15
By the way it is a disgrace that we don't have a scottish parliament thread, Scottish boys sort it out... Don't we have some insiders here? ;)
You know i was just thinking of the parli when i was looking at the pictures of the resi portion here. There is just something about its general arrangement and in particular the windows that seems to be cut from the same cloth as the MSPs' office portion of Holyrood.
I do keep meaning to get my arse across to Embra and do the tour. Did one during construction but only really passed by it since then. I have a meeting practically next door to it next week so i may see if i can take some snaps at least....
I saw post 29 and thought of Gaudi....
Great images
Will the timber in the ceiling discolour/change in colour over time
The roof space seems to be an expensive void - in a market people are looking at produce/stalls, not looking "up" to the ceiling/roof. Could the roof area have been "better" utilised?
It seems to have the feel of a roof draped over a "traditional" market building, and that seems to work, but the timber detailing (the facades)seems to be much more complicated than it "should" be - almost as though the architects didn't know when to stop...or is it just what we see from the photos
Does the market space "work" and the building "feel" as it should?
Great post - thanks for sharing
am_i_wry
27-02-2007, 22:50
The roof space seems to be an expensive void - in a market people are looking at produce/stalls, not looking "up" to the ceiling/roof. Could the roof area have been "better" utilised?
What a curious comment...you are kind of saying that there is no particular need for spatial quality....this in a tradition which has its roots in 19th century engineering structures like the great rail stations in London and more specifically in the market buildings that are pretty common in Europe. They are sheds. Expressed sheds with functional but decorative canopies and height that isnt 'used'.
my comment was in quotations - I don't argue that space itself is not valuable/useful/important etc. It just seems to me that there could have been a mezzanine level (post 17 at first glance shows what looks like a walkway, but seems to be a thickened beam - ?), and the void is beyond doubt an expensive space. The use of the "void" for additional functions related to the market (or cummunity spaces, or art spaces) perhaps would not necessarily have detracted from the soaring celing.
So no, I am not saying there is "no particular need for spatial quality". It would not be inconcievable for a mezzanine space to occupy the "void" without impact on its vertical spatial qualities - I just wonder why, from a functional perspective that space was not "used" in the more common sense of the word.
maybe something to do with dissapation of heat (or in the case of old railway station - smoke), allowing the space to not be air conditioned perhaps?
I've got only one problem with this building. But that's rather a general comment about the way the mediterranean markets are heading these days and not Enric's fault at all. Compared to other famous markets in Barcelona (Boqueria, Sant Antoni, or the one in Gracia) the restored ones (Santa Caterina or Cocepcio) are extremly sterile. You enter an air conditioned space, the floor is shining bright, it's surprisingly silent you're almost afraid to speak and you can smell some cleaning stuff rather than the usual crazy mixture of all kinds of food on sale (exaggerating now). The shops look like boutiques in a shopping mall - once I went shopping to Santa Caterina and the only thing I bought was a bottle of great olive oil - but when I was tasting various kinds in order to get the best one I felt more like trying shoes in that environment. The old markets were like streets or squares, full of noise and chaos, full of incredible moments, full of shouting, full of smells and tastes, full of life. It may sound sentimental, but I feel there's something lost in the evolution.
Nevetheless, talking about architecture (and omitting life), my opinion on Santa Caterina is that it's one of the best examples of adaptation of a contemporary building complex to the conditions of a chaotic medieval city structure. I love the roof structure from the outside as well as from the inside, I love the distorted houses hovering above the market and I love the raised plaza. And next time I'm in bcn, I surely will go and take a look if something has changed since I was there last time which was in the first months after the opening.
vOid, thanks for posting what I consider one of my favorite projects from Miralles and Tagliabue, if not the best! Great insight and detailled views. Something that strikes me in this particular project, is the fact that they considered the 'fifth façade', I mean the roof one, as every other building in the surroundings is overlooking it. This is something M&T always worked on, as if they considered their buildings as bodies. Great post!:not worth
am_i_wry
27-02-2007, 23:27
my comment was in quotations - I don't argue that space itself is not valuable/useful/important etc. It just seems to me that there could have been a mezzanine level (post 17 at first glance shows what looks like a walkway, but seems to be a thickened beam - ?), and the void is beyond doubt an expensive space. The use of the "void" for additional functions related to the market (or cummunity spaces, or art spaces) perhaps would not necessarily have detracted from the soaring celing.
So no, I am not saying there is "no particular need for spatial quality". It would not be inconcievable for a mezzanine space to occupy the "void" without impact on its vertical spatial qualities - I just wonder why, from a functional perspective that space was not "used" in the more common sense of the word.
maybe something to do with dissapation of heat (or in the case of old railway station - smoke), allowing the space to not be air conditioned perhaps?
Voids themselves are not particularly expensive, mezzanines are more so....what would be expensive here is the roof structure itself but it looks worth every penny to me, its a thing of joy and that is worth having and not watering down by packing it to the gunnels with 'stuff' just because there is space to fill.
The thing is the minute you put in a mezzanine you relegate the spaces under it to being poorer quality subervient spaces. They no longer get the benefit of the light and space and talking about community or art spaces seems odd to me. That almost suggests that those functions are more deserving of the spatial quality the roof brings than the market. That misses the point. These markets in mainland Europe are a form of theatre in themselves. Food is important, its a religion and these are the cathedrals to that religion.
There is one in Florence i seem to recall that has had a mezzanine inserted and it just kills the space, its such a bad idea.
Perhaps it's how a mezanine is inserted. A true mezzanine rather than another floor level, would allow the space to soar past. And creation of the void is expensive, as Wry correctly points out - of course the void is not expensive (unless it's heated/cooled).
Still, a pretty attractive building and interesting spaces, but in the light of comments by dhaa, and how "contemporary markets" are "used" it would be also interesting to know what the "feel" of this market is. It appears that the building is not air-conditioned?
Food is important, its a religion and these are the cathedrals to that religion.
Strike :D
am_i_wry
27-02-2007, 23:45
Perhaps it's how a mezanine is inserted. A true mezzanine rather than another floor level, would allow the space to soar past.
it would soar past, but not everywhere. There would be areas where the ceiling height is limited. I do know what a mezzanine is by the way, that *is* what i was talking about not just another floor level.
And creation of the void is expensive, as Wry correctly points out - of course the void is not expensive (unless it's heated/cooled).
No creation of the void isnt all that expensive at all. There is a wee bit more external wall involved but not all that much. Once you get the foundations out of the ground adding in extra height doesnt cost proportionally as much and unless you are cutting it right to the bone and taking a very hard headed commercial view its overstating it to call it 'expensive'.
It appears that the building is not air-conditioned?
to be honest, I'm not so sure now whether it is or isn't air-conditioned. perhaps Void will bring some light in that. in any case, you enter the market via a sliding door and you're divided from the street by a glazed facade. you're INSIDE and everything is somehow subordinated to that. it makes people behave differently.
dhaa, thanks for the comment - it's a pity markets (and other spaces) have moved away from the public realm and become private spaces. What you describe is of course the fore-runner to the enclosed shopping mall...the spaces appear to be "pubic" but in fact are controlled private spaces - an inward looking/intoverted space that relies on itself rather than its relationship with the "outside" world....no wonder people act differently from when they are in a "more traditional" street market.
I'm not so sure now whether it is or isn't air-conditioned. perhaps Void will bring some light in that.
The restaurant is air conditioned, the small shops in the front I suppose are as well, and the market hall didn't seem to be, although I'm not sure. I have only seen HVAC ducts in the restaurant.
You are spot on about the sterile look and about how the fact of it being an enclosed space (unlike the Boqueria for example) gives it a whole different feel. Still I think that's not a problem architecture could have solved better. Hygiene regulations and such make it increasingly difficult to keep the traditional street market atmosphere.
Agreed - a good architectural response - as societies we've become a little to precious(?) about hygiene, health and safety sometimes.
It's also private space, not in public ownership - the public is permitted to enter/occupy such spaces by the owner (even if the owner is a public corporation), unlike informal/traditional market spaces - it's called progress
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