barcelona youth center

Educational Architecture Work

(1) exterior rendering — **(1)** exterior rendering

The Barcelona Youth Center Project was assigned to my study abroad studio the Spring Semester of my Junior Year. Working along with my partner, Katie Massa, we were tasked to confront the question :

What does the city of Barcelona and more specifically what does our site need the most?

After carefully researching the context around us, we concluded that in our opinion the Barcelona lacked an area for green space but also greatly lacked an area for young people, around our age, to congregate. Based on these conclusions we decided to design a youth center. Our project revolves around the concepts of landscape, hardscape, ceramics, water, light, and a defining grid. During the research phase, we specifically focused on materiality and hardscape so we looked to incorporate that concept with our belief of the need for a dominating landscape aspect.

We designed our landscape in vertical strips combining them with concrete as the hardscape for walkability through the site. On the edges of the landscape, we placed glass so that natural light could find its way down into the underground area. To accentuate the existing aqueduct on the site, we created our own water feature in the form of a glass water wall that also houses “The Kiss”. This glass water wall starts at the south of the site and guides all foot traffic towards the central void which is also the main entry path into the underground. The glass spiral staircase down into the underground funnels you into the underground youth center.

The first thing you notice when walking into the underground is the colorful tessellated roof that also shows itself on the top landscape in horizontal sections. These tessellations serve as another key aspect of our design. The tessellations above ground do not only serve as an aesthetically pleasing design element that brings light into the site but they also serve as filtration devices for the air flow from our underground program back above ground. The underground tessellations are arranged in the existing grid and are split between ceramic tessellations and glass tessellations. The glass tessellations are placed underneath the areas where the glass from the landscapes reside causing warm colored light to reflect into the space.

The next thing you notice are the glazed glass boxes that house the program of the youth center. To create a hierarchy in the space, we hung some of the glass boxes from the structural system holding the tessellations which creates a floating effect in the underground. Continuing the concept of floating, the concrete central slab is lifted by supports. Surrounding the concrete slab is filtered water that can be utilized as a pool.