Mateo Arquitectura

The project for the women’s prison in Barcelona will be exhibited at COAC
June 10 – September 4, 2010

“Arquitectura judicial y penitenciaria” (Legal and Penitentiary Architecture) is the title of the exhibition that compiles the most important projects and works in Catalonia during the last 7 years: 33 judicial buildings and 12 prisions. Mateo Arquitectura participates with his project for the women’s prison in St. Llorenç d’Hortons (Barcelona), including the model and graphic material.

NATURE AND PROJECT

The project site is characterized by a sequence of low mountains (planted with pine and evergreen oak) and minor watercourses lined by ash and more evergreen oak, with crop fields in between. High-profile contemporary infrastructures (HST line, industry, etc.) form a drastic intersection to this system.

Although our intervention is new, we aim to make the relationship with nature the central point of the implantation. Since this is a more open prison than usual, where some of the inmates have the opportunity to move around, the building is concentrated round the outer edges, freeing up the centre as a communal space.

The project continues the existing plant structure:

1. Completing the woods above (also serving to consolidate a plant boundary to the adjacent house)
2. Consolidating the stream below, with a drainage system laid out beneath the HST layout
3. Freeing up the centre as a leisure area laid out around sports and cultural amenities.

Internal circulation is circular: the traffic turning points accommodate various small plazas for pedestrians.

BRIEF

In keeping with the site’s specific characteristics (orientation, topography, views) and the functional criteria governing the brief, the less restrictive modules are laid out on the higher tracts of land, commanding the best views and optimum sunlighting. The basic residential and secure detention modules are located on lower land, terracing down the slope to form a natural boundary to the yards.

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Architect: Mateo Arquitectura
Client: GISA (Departament de Justícia de la Generalitat)
Site: Barcelona
Project: 2006-2007
Surface: 40.000 m2