*사그라다 파밀리아를 호텔에 재해석 하다 [ Wortmann Architects + Guillermo Bañares Arquitectos + Carlos Narvaez ] Hotel Ayre

빌바오에 위치한 구겐하임 미술관이 도시를 변화시키듯이
세계적인 건축가 안토니오 가우디가 설계한 사그라다 파밀리아 대성당은
바르셀로나 시를 비추는 등대와 같습니다. 그 톡특한 건축적 향기는
도시 전체로 뿌려지며 호텔을 디자인하는 중요한 모티베이션으로 작용합니다.

크게 두가지 측면에서 호텔 디자인은 시작합니다.
하나는 공간의 형태적 볼륨에서 오는 시각적 체험과
형태를 규정짓는 재료에 대한 정의 입니다.
첫번째 가우디가 즐겨 사용하는 깨진 타일의 사용은
호텔 인포데스크의 디자인에서 일부분을 찾아 볼 수 있습니다.
그의 정의되지 않는 듯한 불규칙적인 조각타일의 붙임을 보는 듯한
연속적인 마블링 스톤은 비록 장인의 숨결은 느낄 수 없지만
그가 추구하고자 했던 무지향적 자연적 디자인에
한발 다가서는 현대적 감각을 보여줍니다.
두번째 형태적 볼륨에 대한 접근은 호텔 내부를 수직으로 관통하는
에어 아트리움에서 찾아 볼 수 있습니다.
사그라다 파밀리아 성당의 다양한 디자인적 패턴에 상응하는 현대적인
컨텐츠의 접목과 재해석 작업을 통하여 디자인 코드를 생성합니다.
그렇게 재정렬된 중정 내부 벽면의 개구부는 리드믹컬한
패턴과 방향성을 가지면 수직 상단으로 부터 그라운드 레벨에 위치한
호텔 라운지로 쏟아져 내려갑니다.
-여기에 다양한 컬러의 LED를 더함으로써 불빛들의 향연을 맛 볼 수 있습니다.-

이와같은 건축적 감상에 대한 오마주는 호텔 내부공간을
정의하는 중요한 컨텐츠로 작용하는 동시에 바로 건너편에 보이는
대성당과 시공간을 넘는 공간적 밀착도를 보입니다.

아... 정말 가보고 싶네요.

-번외-
사실 지금의 나 이렇게 건축에 관련된 리뷰를 쓰고
건축에 몸 담게 만든 양반이 가우디 선생이다..
고등학교 졸업 후 별다른 꿈이 없던 나에게
무심코 친구가 던져준 가우디 선생의 작품집은
그 당시 나에게 문화적 충격이었다.
'어떻게 이러한 것들을 만들어 낼 수 있을까?'
로 시작된 질문은 결국 사그라다 파밀리아 앞에서 멈추어서면
지금의 나를 만드는 계기가 된 것이다.
그 후 대학에 들어가고 신진건축가들에게 밀려 잊고 있던 그 양반을
다시 한번 들추어 보니 새삼 감개무량하다.
역시 건축은 차가운 머리보다 뜨거운 가슴으로 해야 하는 것 같다.

reviewed by SJ

The visible creates a work in form – the invisible defines its worth- Lao Tse

To be confronted with a building site in the shadow of the “SagradaFamilia“ a key work of the Catalan master AntoniGaudí, is an unique opportunity in the life of an architect. We were perfectly aware that the particular modernist style – to be read as a Catalan version of Art Nouveau – influenced by surrealism, the colorful ornaments reflecting organic elements taken out of nature, as well as the daring structure of the cathedral, represents for the city of Barcelona the same overwhelming attraction as the Frank Gehry`s Guggenheim Museum for Bilbao.

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Architects: Wortmann Architects + Guillermo Bañares Arquitectos + Carlos Narváez
Location: Rosellón, 390, Barcelona, Spain
Consultants: Juan Almendro Ferrer (HVAC), BOMA (Structure), TRAM (executive site management), José Luís Vázquez (client project management), Michela Mezzavila (lighting), LuchoMarcial + AVA Studio (Interior Design)
Project Year: 2009
Collaborators: Serenella di Dio, Ava Costa, Laia Capellades
Construction Company: Copcisa
Surface: 5,208 sqm (above ground level)
Photographer: Stefan Müller

We also knew that we would not just cover some of the surfaces of the building with the “trencadis”, a patchwork of broken ceramic tiles, as a lot of bars and hotels in the city did, imitating a typical technique of Gaudí´s artisans. Our reminiscence had to be a more effective as a compromised tribute to the principles of his architectural approach, which should still be meaningful in our days. How should we do it?

Neither we were willing to consider the effort to adapt the uniform structural grid of an hotel to the overwhelming expressivity of an Art Nouveau Jewel inserted in the Paseo de Gracia representative but conventional facades, for a Maecenas as it was Count Güell, the promoter of the project. Nor we had the architectural power to smash to the ground the critics of such an endeavor, as Gaudí did in his time. To this extension, it is certainly a curiosity that the celebrated “Pedrera” originally obeyed to the mockery of the Barcelonese public, which depicted the building as a stone quarry.

Following the guide-line traced by our overpowering neighbor, we definitely accepted to integrate in our design the Fibonacci-series, which mathematically define the proportions in nature, let´s say, between trunk, branch and twig during the growing of a tree. As may be observed in the rhythm of the openings in the central courtyard, the somehow intellectual procedure of following an abstract order is not necessarily incompatible to the will of form. The lively composition shows an astonishing likeliness to the interior of the cathedral-towers.

As a contemporary way of integrating the animated colors of nature, we attached fine stripes of LED-lightning elements edgeways to the window panes. Thanks to the computerized coordination of the LED´s, it´s even possible to reproduce a sort of “Gesamtkunstwerk”, combining sound and light effects, like Vivaldi´s “QuatroStaggioni” with the changing colors evoked by the four baroque concertos. It´s just a contemporary way to attain the all-embracing art form intended by Gaudí, humbly following the path beaten by the master.

We found the answer in Gaudí´s devotion to nature as the most inspiring force to his architectural practice. Aren´t his columns bending like trees? Who had visited once his outstanding residential building “La Pedrera” at Paseo de Gracia-Avenue, knows that most of his public spaces are painted in a Symphony of colors that reminds summer and autumn, painted on woods leafs as canvas.

One of the outstanding principles of the SagradaFamilia is its complex system of measuring modules which confers a clear order to the whole building and is the reason why, after the death of Gaudí, others could continue his legacy, even without a sufficient support of planning documents. Visionary, the master showed an apple-minded obsession with details, which is nowadays resulting as a key to the feasibility of the grandiose building completion.

Awareness of the historic context, we are acting as architects should, in our opinion, go hand in hand with modesty. In this sense, after several months of studies and model-building in the studio, finally we understood that the formal mastership and technical complexity we were trying to transfer to ours, in the way of a morphologic study from the façade of the formerly mentioned residential building “La Pedrera”, was out of our reach.

That is why we liked the idea of integrating the hotel into this traditional scheme, applying the local design code in an even more conservative way, respecting faithfully the proportions and distances outlined for the openings, but still we felt appealing to express the fact that inside a bourgeois body it was beating the vigorous heart of a patio filled by an inspiring symphony of colors and sounds.

In a simple but effective gesture, we broke up the stone panels between adjacent guest apartments, filling the void with thin alabaster tiles attached to laminated glass slabs, which measures were scaled by the Fibonacci Series. Opaque during the day, they become translucent at night, following the sequence of the visitors lighting their rooms. Therefore the facades become the animated showcase of the building’s activity.

It is only another vantage for the challenge of raising up a project in the neighborhood of a world famous incunabula of international tourism that we were allowed, just adopting the section of our building to the slightly slope of the preexisting plot of land, to create a public plaza in the interior of the block, accessible from the hotel bar at the ground floor. In the counterpart of financing the investment for the public space, we were permitted to demolish the shabby and neglected two-storey constructions along the inner passage, bringing their floor area up to the top of the hotel building.

By this operation, not only a roof terrace with breathtaking views on the heights of the SagradaFamilia could be created, but yet entering the hotel mall the visitor becomes aware of the powerful presence of the monument. We wish to believe that in this precise moment volatiles sensations are transformed to an enduring experience, due to an effort of locating our building, its outfit and inner reality, in a meaningful position towards history and place.

The initial difficulties we found in our first design attitude helped us to discipline our proposal, adopting the regular traces of the façades which are the characteristic pattern of the “Eixample”, built on the master-plan designed by the civil engineer IldefonsCerdá in 1860. Although rejected by the upcoming industrialists who were the protagonists of the technical revolution, due to its egalitarian grid which did not satisfy their idea of a city as a mirror of the new economic order, it was imposed by the Spanish Central Government of Madrid to the Municipality of Barcelona.

Nowadays, Cerdá Plan is recognized as a pioneer project, due to its effectiveness resolving actual traffic needs and to create protected residential areas inside the blocks. Barcelona inhabitants feel comfortable living within its rationally organized streets and the uniform and solid beauty of their facades fits well to the reserved character of the Catalan People.

from  archdaily