We were entrusted with a pavilion to serve the Hockey section of the Barcelona Royal Polo Club. But we set out to build a building that, in addition to serving the section, would be able to bring together and represent the entire group linked to the club’s hockey. A catalyst that would create a community.
The building is located between two hockey fields, in an elevated position that allows the games in play to be followed. Understanding the stands as the true plinth, the pavilion adopts its material, the manual exposed brick, as its own.
Surrounded by large pine trees, an eminently horizontal single-storey building was chosen, but topped by a very pronounced gabled roof that would provide a vertical counterpoint that would strengthen its presence and significance.
The proposal intends to have a certain continuity with the reform carried out by Robert Terradas in the 1960s in the clubhouse.
Given the tight budget, a simple but very expressive building was proposed. Giving prominence to constructive honesty, we managed, with the scarce resources available, to endow the pavilion with a strong character and identity.
The entire project is structured by exposed brick volumes that, arranged in a longitudinal sequence, solve the structure and hierarchy of the spaces. A concatenation of served spaces and servers follow one another in a path of progressive privacy. The brick boxes function as filters that regulate the transit between the most public space and the strictly private one.
The first space has been designed as a meeting place for all those linked to hockey (players, families, coaches, spectators...). A large porch facing the playing fields with a small bar. The second space, already inside, is reserved for the competition teams. A room destined to give technical talks to the teams. The last room is already of restricted use, only for the coaching staff. A flexible work area with meeting rooms, storage and archives.
The restrooms are located inside the boxes, while the diaphanous rooms are arranged between them.
This sequential logic will allow, in a second phase, to expand the building following the same system.
The only pillar of the building, the one that allows the porch to open onto the fields, is resolved by means of two metal profiles that clamp the starting concrete base. The two profiles have been painted in the club’s colours.
