It is a new building in a consolidated urban area, with one side facing the Ronda del General Mitre, one of the most important roads with the highest traffic density in Barcelona, and the other sides facing small neighbourhood roads. For this reason, the building varies in height and the façades respond to the different environments.
There is a plinth covered with concrete panels that marks the first floors of the building; the ones at the top, where the rooms are, are worked with panels finished in aluminum that fold in some parts to mark the openings to the outside. The module covered with wooden slats that juts out over the main road houses spaces for community use on each floor.
In addition to the characteristics of the area, there is the challenge of producing collective spaces – for protection, exchange and permanence – in a plot of minimum dimensions for a building of this type. There was just enough area to develop the rooms and service areas, but a way was sought to create spaces so that the patients could socialise.
On the ground floor of Dolors Aleu, in the southern part of the building, the activities of the gym and the cafeteria, generally limited to the spaces created for such purposes, can extend to the terrace, open on one side towards the Ronda de General Mitre. The roof that results from the change in volume on the third floor becomes passable and is used as a terrace for patients and visitors. The central corridor, which organises the spaces on all floors, on this level opens towards the outside to configure a patio with trees and rest benches. The wood and metal of the façades are repeated in the furniture and in the pavement of the terrace, consistent with the materiality of the entire building. In the typical floor plan there are two interior meeting areas, each at the end of the central corridor. These spaces were left free, with the ability to assume any type of collective function.
