1. EDUCATIONAL ARCHITECTURE • BARCELONA, SPAIN
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Text description provided by the architects. The TBS
school is located in the innovation district of 22@,
prepared to accommodate more than 1,100 students. It
is a terraced building with a ceramic facade featuring
large openings that reflect the dynamism of the interior
program. The design aims to create e!icient, high-quality
educational spaces connected to vegetation, and the
building has achieved LEED Gold sustainability
certification. The stepped structure is integrated into its
surroundings, and the business school is situated in a
block of 22@, Barcelona's innovation and business
activity hub, occupying the corner between Venezuela
and Josep Pla streets. The building's layout follows the
chamfered shape, highlighting the characteristic
morphology of the Eixample district.
Following urban planning regulations, the project
integrates into the urban environment by dedicating a
portion of the plot to create an interior block passage,
generating a new public space that helps open up the
historically dense industrial fabric. The building starts
with a compact volume that defines the corner and
gradually steps down to mitigate its impact on the urban
landscape, adjusting its scale to fit the interior passage.
This stepping also provides outdoor spaces connected to
vegetation for the rest and interaction of the student
community.
Enhancing permeability with dynamic access. A spacious
double-height porch located at the chamfered corner
serves as the entrance to the center and contributes a
new public space to the city. Once inside, the main lobby
maintains the double height and exterior materiality,
presenting itself as a welcoming and cozy space. The
ground floor houses more public functions, such as a
cafeteria area, which, combined with the facade's
extensive transparency, enhances the public space's
permeability. The lower floors accommodate most
student-related activities, while the upper floors are
dedicated to faculty, administrative departments, and
management. The seventh floor o!ers privileged city
views and is reserved for unique uses such as
auditoriums and representative rooms.
A campus designed for pedagogical innovation. The
building has been designed with the user at the center,
creating spacious communal areas to encourage new
teaching dynamics, with comfort, biophilia, and
sustainability as guiding principles. Communal spaces
are distributed throughout all floors, considered the
heart of the project. These meeting and resting areas are
designed with double and triple heights, creating a
sequence of interconnected spaces that provide the
building with intuitive vertical communication and
enhanced interior spatial quality. Moreover, these
communal spaces foster the exchange of knowledge and
relationships among users while organizing the overall
arrangement of the center's classrooms.
Iconic spaces that enhance community life. The
chamfered corner facade, fully glazed from top to
bottom, reveals double and triple-height communal
meeting areas for students on each floor. Helical
staircases connect these shared spaces. A green wall
creates continuity from the ground floor to the eighth.
The arrangement of stairs in these unique spaces
contributes to creating spatial continuity and promotes
healthy mobility within the building. The design of
comfortable stairs with natural light, highlighted by
vegetation and located in visible spaces, encourages
their use and, therefore, the well-being of individuals,
reducing the reliance on elevators and their
corresponding energy consumption.
Reflecting the interior dynamism of the city. The building
envelope aims to mirror the activity within, leading to
the development of two di!erent facade solutions. While
the more private areas (such as classrooms or o!ices) are
resolved with a modular facade using ceramic pieces and
vertically proportioned glass panels, public and unique
spaces (such as lobbies, meeting areas, the auditorium,
and the Magna classroom) are framed with large
openings that enhance permeability and transparency,
connecting the educational center with the city and
revealing its internal dynamism. The facade's materiality
strives to be consistent with the urban context and the
site's history. Therefore, a finish of ceramic pieces is
chosen for the opaque facade module, directly linking
the building to the industrial past of Poblenou and
adapting it to the urban landscape.
A facade that brings vegetation closer to the user. The
project's identity is also defined by the strong
relationship between the building and vegetation,
aiming to promote user comfort and connection with
nature. The building's stepped design creates various
terraced gardens that encourage biodiversity and extend
indoor activities outdoors. Each space is an additional
room for relaxation, work areas, or hosting significant
events. Cantilevers with planters create a second green
facade on the south facade, bringing vegetation closer to
the TBS community. This ensures a direct view of green
areas and the main terraces. This approach promotes
biophilia and its benefits for users while contributing a
friendly character to the new interior block passage,
connecting with the three large courtyards of the Aparto
Pallars Student Residence building in Barcelona.
An optimally oriented building for maximum e!iciency.
Energy e!iciency has been considered a design method
from the initial stages, implementing passive measures
to reduce the building's energy demand. Its compact
volume optimizes the envelope, minimizing energy
exchange with the exterior and facilitating climate
control.
The facade is sensitive to the environment, adapting to
each orientation by opening up to the north with large
openings and creating a vegetal shield to the south,
protecting against solar radiation. Examples include
cantilevers and climbing plants characterizing the
southern face, serving as sun protection, and a solar filter
for the most demanding facade. Similarly, the optimal
percentage between glass and solid elements has been
studied for each facade, achieving a balance between
harnessing natural light and controlling solar radiation –
ensuring user comfort and the building's energy
e!iciency. The facade also features operable windows,
promoting natural ventilation and user comfort through
passive systems. Additionally, water recovery systems
and photovoltaic panels on the roof, among other
features, contribute to making the campus an active
energy-generating building, earning it a LEED Gold
sustainability certification.
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Project location
Address: Barcelona, Provincia de Barcelona, Spain
Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but
not exact address.
Published on January 05, 2024
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TBS School in Barcelona /
Batlleiroig
Curated by Benjamin Zapico Share
Architects: Batlleiroig
Area: 12210 m²
Year: 2022
Manufacturers: Hunter Douglas Architectural
(Europe), STACBOND
Products used in this Project
Hunter Douglas Architect…
Acoustic Ceilings –
HeartFelt® Linear…
Ceilings
STACBOND
Composite Panel
Finishes - Metallics
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