It consists of a very long façade (250ml) in a compromised situation: the gateway to the Vila Olímpica from the city, framing the two iconic towers of the Port Olímpic together with the curved façade of MBM.
There are 3 singularities in the development of the façade, all of them in the northern end:
1. It is the tallest building at its end.
2. It is a bridge building over Doctor Trueta Street.
3. There was an "absorption" by part of the existing office building which forced an effort of containment and compositional rigors able to absorb all the "accidents" in a unitary and orderly concept of the façade conceived as a limit and presentation of the neighbourhood.
The celebration of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona meant a major urban transformation of the city.
As a result of this and in the urban planning framework of the location of the areas intended for the different events, it was necessary to review the new Urban Planning of the Façade to the Sea of Barcelona, the Vila Olímpica and the recovery of the coast. The urban transformation of a part of the city had to work with a degraded urban structure, oppressed by the railway tracks, turning its back on the sea and with the establishment of old industries, many obsolete or in the process of being dismantled, representative of the initial stages of the industrialisation of the city and the country and with disaggregated groups of houses and warehouses.
The objectives were clear: the city and the citizen. Opening Barcelona to the sea, starting the process of regeneration of the urban fabric, giving continuity to the urban fabric of the immediate environment, new housing groups, equipment and services, public spaces, gardens and parks, all for a better neighbourhood. The result is the consolidation of the new Icària, born suddenly, which has no limits and shares the life and traditions of a neighbourhood with its own history.
The new urban structure was formalised in three major actions:
The beaches, the Passeig Marítim, the Port Olímpic and the facilities that surround it.
The Ronda Litoral and the parks that accompany it and unite the fabric of the Eixample with the sea.
The Residential area, starting from Icària Avenue, which connects La Ciutadella Park with Bogatell Avenue, Ronda Litoral and Marina Street, the backbone of the new neighbourhood, next to Poblenou and which connects the Sagrada Família with the Port Olímpic.
The Residential area, with around 2,000 homes, was designed with the following criteria:
Continuity of the Eixample road network.
Buildings in façade alignment on the main streets.
Priority use of ceramic material on façades.
Creation of landscaped and equipped private spaces for the enjoyment of the residents of each block, as opposed to the large public open spaces of the general planning.
The formal structure of the buildings in Vila Olímpica proposes new types of housing, shallow, guaranteeing cross ventilation and sunlight, consistent with a prioritisation of public space that ensures a diversity of activities. During the Olympic Games, it provided accommodation to the Olympic Family.
With these criteria, the two large buildings that formalise the curved facade of Moscou street – following the trace of the railway underground, without losing their horizontal composition – achieve a unitary reading of the complex, although they correspond to projects by different authors on both sides of Marina Street.
The building of 165 HOUSES in the upper part of Marina Street is part of a project unit, with the OFFICE building and the PRIMARY CARE CENTRE, contributing to qualify the interior space of the block that they delimit. Moscou Street façade incorporates part of the office building in its composition. One of the characteristics of this complex is that the building, acting as a bridge, is crossed by Doctor Trueta Street.
The homes, mostly with three and four rooms and an area between 100/120 m2, had to make the residential program during the Olympic Games compatible with the subsequent housing program for the new neighbourhood.
They have shallow recesses that facilitate ventilation and cross views between the exterior space, streets and parks and the gardened interior of the block. The built height corresponds to the ground floor, mostly with housing and six floors, except for the part closest to the intersection of Doctor Trueta and Joan Miró Streets, which has a ground floor and nine floors.