Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes and Marvel partner to transform Barcelona thermal plant Tres Xemeneies into cultural center.
Tres Xemeneies/Three Chimneys will anchor Barcelona’s burgeoning Catalunya Media City, that will host audiovisual, digital, and video game projects. The development is taking place in Sant Adrià de Besòs, a Barcelona suburb. Garcés de Seta Bonet Arquitectes (GdSB), a Spanish firm, and New York–based Marvel are working together to transform an abandoned Barcelona factory, recognizable for its three chimneys, into an exhibition space.
Tres Xemeneies/Three Chimneys will anchor Barcelona’s burgeoning Catalunya Media City, a strategic project of the Catalan government that will host audiovisual, digital, and video game projects. (Courtesy GdSB and Marvel)
The former thermal plant where the culture center will be sited was built in the 1970s, but closed in 2011. Its three chimneys are 650 feet tall, recognizable from far away, marking some of the tallest structures in the region. Since closing, the plant has been managed by Front Marítim del Besòs, but that entity has since ceded the turbine hall over to the Generalitat de Catalunya for redevelopment.
The redesign by GdSB and Marvel breaks up the complex into four zones, architects said. Space for educational programming; research, residency, and business incubators; experience and exhibitions; and a resource center for the Catalan audiovisual industry will all abound.
The architects plan to keep the existing structure intact while adding a new addition to complete the building. (Courtesy GdSB and Marvel)
The main space at Tres Xemeneies/Three Chimneys will be its central space for concerts and lectures. Anna Bonet, GdSB cofounding partner, compared the future Barcelona institution’s main hall with large-scale exhibition spaces “reminiscent of the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, the Aviva Studios Warehouse in Manchester, or the Park Avenue Armory in New York.”
GdSB and Marvel won a Catalan government-backed competition to design the project; that pair beat out 26 preliminary entries. Daria de Seta, GdSB cofounder, called her office’s design “an ode to Fellini,” the lauded Italian filmmaker. The project itself is titled E la nave va, “and the ship sails on” in English.
The future center’s main space will be its main hall. (Courtesy GdSB and Marvel)
“The Tres Xemeneies represent an icon of Catalonia’s industrial heritage that we aim to preserve and enhance,” said Guido Hartray, a founding partner at Marvel.
The architects noted that they intend on keeping the existing structure intact while adding a new addition that extends and completes the building. The new addition will connect the interior of the turbine hall with outdoor space, replete with great views of the sea and mountains.
The only substantial modification to the existing factory building, architects continued, will be transversal cuts that create “a harmonious transition between the terrain and the urban pavement, fostering an organic integration with the surroundings.”
The interiors will be lined in concrete and other materials. (Courtesy GdSB and Marvel)
“Transforming an infrastructure that has had a heavy environmental impact in the past into one that drives the future of media collaboration while utilizing the existing structure’s weight to lighten the new program’s energy footprint, seems to us, like a worthy goal for the future of architecture,” Jonathan Marvel of Marvel Architects noted.