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Bar de Viver Civic Center

Architects
Territori 24
Location
Carrer de Quito, 8, Barcelona, Spain
Architect in Charge
Adri Calvo LOrange, Ivan Prez Bars, Bet Alabern Cortina, Alvaro Casanovas Leal
Area
1652.0 sqm
Project Year
2014
Photographs
Adri Goula
Promoter
Districte de Sant Andreu - Ajuntament de Barcelona
Constructor
UTE Serom-Sogesa
Engineering
Caba sostenibilitat: Xavier Salt Batista
Budget
2.175.678,83

The new Bar de Viver Civic Centre is the first LEED Platinum certified Social Facility building for new
construction in Spain.
In a neighbourhood that is cut off from the rest of the city, the new facility breathes life into the social
fabric of the area and strengthens the connection between the neighbourhoods public thoroughfare and its
green spaces.
Its 1,700 m2 house an exhibition room, several workshops, a space for recreational use and
education for the elderly, an auditorium that is open to the neighbourhood and fully equipped for
musical performances, conferences and circus shows.
Courtyards were cut from a 40x40m compact, square floorplan and solar tubes have been
incorporated, as well as skylights to bring natural light into all rooms.
A green roof was incorporated as well as a double-skin green faade. This allows for an intermediary
space that filters the visuals from the interior. The second faade, at the same time, serves as an anti-
vandal and security system.
The interior spaces have been designed individuallly, studying the acoustic and sensory requirements of
each room. Thus, the spaces for the elderly, designed to be used during the day, are south-facing and in
direct contact with the courtyard; the acoustics are modulated through the use of acoustic panels hung
from the exposed concrete ceiling. The classrooms are located to the west arranged along the secondary
corridor. The auditorium is essentially a dark box which gives precedence to technical requirements.
Finally, the large central axis is structured as an exhibition and meeting space for the users.
A signage system based on anamorphic projections of texts guides users while at the same time making
use of an economic resource that lends each space an attractive feature.
The building consumes 48% less than a standard building and produces a 16% of the consumed energy
through photovoltaic panels. It has been designed not to need cooling in the summer, achieving climate
comfort through thermal inertia and ventilation.
100% of the buildings irrigation and sanitory water comes from rainwater. 93% of the spaces have
natural light, reducing the expenditure on lighting and improving the quality and comfort of the interior.
It is a building free of pollutants such as VOCs and mercury, thus gauranteeing air quality. Entirely dry-
constructed, the building reduces the impact and emissions of all its lifecycles by 41%.
The use of different pre-industrialized systems enable the optimization of the implementation process.
The structure is defined by a system of precast concrete porticos and hollow core slab roofing. The faade
is divided into two strips. One is made from precast architectural concrete panels with a large thermal
break that already incorporate an air chamber, insulation and support structure.
The lower strip incorporates the openings for each room based on their orientation and energy needs.
There are three standard sizes for the windows. These windows combine with glass-fibre cement panels
and an exterior cladding of technical wood.
By applying these criteria we have achieved a building that is highly sustainable and whose budget is
34% lower than average for the city of Barcelona.
Bima Microlibrary
Architects
SHAU Bandung
Location
Jl. Bima, Arjuna, Cicendo, Kota Bandung, Jawa Barat, Indonesia
Team
Florian Heinzelmann, Daliana Suryawinata, Yogi Ferdinand with Rizki Supratman, Roland Tejo Prayitno,
Aditya Kusuma, Octavia Tunggal, Timmy Haryanto, Telesilla Bristogianni, Margaret Jo
Client
Dompet Dhuafa, City of Bandung
Area
160.0 sqm
Photographs
Sanrok Studio
Contractor
Yogi Pribadi, Pramesti Sudjati
Signage graphic design
Nusae
Supported by
Dompet Dhuafa, Urbane Community , Indonesian Diaspora Foundation
Construction costs
35.000 Euro

The Microlibrary is located at Taman Bima, Bima Street in Bandung in a small square in a Kampung
neighborhood near the airport. The neighborhood consists of middle class housing on one side and a
Kampung (village) like structure on the other, where less affluent people live. The Taman Bima
Microlibrary is the first realized prototype of a series of small libraries in different locations throughout
Indonesia, which we intend to build.
With an Interest in books and reading declining in the past years, the illiteracy rate and school dropout
rate in Indonesia remains high. Our mission is to rekindle interest in books by offering a dedicated place
for reading and learning, availability of books, other media and courses. The Microlibrary adds identity
and is a source of pride for all the people in the neighborhood. The activities and teaching are currently
supported and organized by Dompet Dhuafa (Pocket for the Poor) and the Indonesian Diaspora
Foundation. However, the ultimate goal is to enable the local people to organize the content and
maintenance independently.
The building is situated in a small square with a preexisting stage that was already used by the local
community for gatherings, events, hanging out and sports activities. Our intention was to add rather than
take away, so we decided to enhance the open stage by shading it, making it rain protected and cover it in
form of the floating library box.
The building is constructed via a simple steel structure made from I-beams and concrete slabs for floor
and roof. The stage was reworked in concrete and a previously missing, wide stair was added. As the
building is located in a tropical climate, we aimed to create a pleasant indoor climate without the use of
air conditioning. Therefore, we looked for available faade materials in the neighborhood that were cost
efficient, could shade the interior, let daylight pass and enable enough cross ventilation. Initially, we
found several small vendors selling used, white and translucent jerry cans. However, prior to construction
the jerry cans were no longer available in the quantities we required. Instead, we found used plastic ice
cream buckets that were being sold in bulk. This turned out for the better as they have a more positive
image and are more stable when cutting the bottom open for cross ventilation.
While studying design options of how to arrange 2000 ice cream buckets, we realized that they could be
interpreted as zeros (opened) and ones (closed), thus giving us the possibility to embed a message in the
faade in the form of a binary code. We asked the Mayor of Bandung, Ridwan Kamil, a supporter of the
project whether he had a message for the Microlibrary and neighborhood and his message is: buku
adalah jendela dunia, meaning books are the windows to the world. The message can be read starting
from the top left (facing the front) and spirals down around the perimeter repeatedly. Not only does the
facade give additional meaning to the building but the buckets also generate a pleasant indoor light
ambiance since they scatter direct sunlight and act as natural light bulbs.
The buckets were then placed in between vertical steel ribs spanning from floor to roof and are inclined
towards the outside to repel rainwater. For more harsh tropical rainstorms translucent sliding doors in the
inside can be closed temporarily. Mounting 2000 buckets, making the fixture and punching out bottoms
of more than half of them is time consuming. However, the local craftsmen made their own punch
out/cutting tools to be faster while also maintaining sharp and clean edges.
The building is very well received among the people in the neighborhood and we get regular
feedback about ongoing events, e.g. school class excursions, etc.

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