The old Poble Nou district, the productive engine of the city of Barcelona, was mostly built for industrial sites without any architectural interest. The few exceptions that the heritage catalog decided to keep may create the wrong picture of what this place was like. The fact is that most of the constructions were very precarious, with no other interest than the merely productive ones and constructed through a continuous process of addition of bodies with very heterogeneous construction techniques. Can Framis can be a sample of this type of construction and does not want to make up the texture of its old and damaged skin which acts in contrast to the high technology displayed around it.
The contemporary intervention consists of cauterising the wound by consolidating the testers and constructing a new building that connects the two existing naves and that had to coincide itself with the layout of another old nave. In this way, the three buildings form a courtyard that becomes the lobby of the future museum and space for multipurpose activities.
All these interventions are materialised in a coarse concrete that melts with the pavements. A layer of gray paint protects the existing walls and makes their details transparent (brick, stone, arches, scars from old windows, etc.), forming a contemporary collage of textures, holes and walls that reflects the different strata and interventions that the building has undergone over time.
Inside, you take the elevator from the entrance and the visit begins at the highest level, to get a continuous walk, downhill and without interruptions of the exhibition route. The required high exposure density leaves the only formal scores for this route for the stairs.
The garden highlights the unusual level where the museum is located, a metre and a half below the level of the Cerdà plot, the product of its previous location and rises within its limits to hide wheeled traffic. The ivy that will cover the entire pavement and the poplars will offer a melancholy and decadent image that will enhance the contrast with the smell of new surroundings.
