Batlle i Roig Arquitectectura

A highly prefabricated system reproducing the image of a traditional brick work. (Like in case Light prefabricated “brick” work).

The challenge is erecting a new building in an old neighbourhood being respectful with the image and material character of the surrounding buildings.

The brick work wall builds a massive plinth that sits the building in the place.

From this plinth emerge a series of isolated volumes defined by a clearly different material character.

The construction with large-format prefabricated panels contrasts with the craftsmanship that accompanies the execution of the brick work wall.

Technique, system and image. Example of great coherence.

Related cases:

Elegant and well-resolved contemporary conventional façade solution where the main sheet, the exposed brick masonry wall, passes in front of the slab fronts.

Very astutely, the architects decide to support this wall over the window openings, thus avoiding having parts of the wall supported on two different levels, the slab and the lintel.

The solution is simple, clean and coherent.

Related cases:

From a constructional point of view, this façade solution is quite similar to the one which the same architects have used in the office building in 22@. We just want to highlight the effectiveness that these mouldings may have if we compare them to those used in the building mentioned previously.

The relationship between the façade enclosure and the structure is a recurring theme in Batlle and Roig’s work.

In the CMT headquarters the structure is located offset from the façade to allow free development of a nearly entirely glazed envelope.

The search for almost completely continuous glazing across the façade has led to a potential fire hazard through the possible spread of fire between floors. In this case, this problem is solved by offsetting the glass panel by several centimetres. 

A double skin glass façade has indisputable formal possibilities, such as blurring the structural and/or functional order, providing uniformity and vanishing the volume limits so they merge with the sky. However, it contributes little to improving thermal aspects in our climate. 

This is an interesting resource to hide the blind area associated with the edge of the slab, the facilities’ cavity and the elevated floor without having to delimit this area with two transoms visible in the elevation. The only apparent cutting is that of the unitized panel, with greater or lesser density in the pattern of the serigraphy that opalizes or simply veils the transparency of the glass.

Batlle and Roig designed a double skin façade for this office building in 22@. The inner layer meets the thermal requirements and those of air and water tightness, while the outer layer delimits the building volumetrically and seeks to improve its thermal behaviour.

On this occasion, Batlle and Roig resort to a curtain wall in which partial structures are assembled at each slab front without physical continuity between them. Glass panes are then supported over the partial structures to close the façade (have a look at the "Cadireta" curtain wall structure). Each two glass panes are framed with an aluminium frame made of unitized panels profiles. So, is this a unitized façade or a curtain wall one? Maybe it is a mixture of the two?