Carme Pinós

The MACBA, the Film Library and now the new Massana school building: all of these are large public buildings inserted into a dense, small-grain urban structure. In the case of the Massana school, the strategy was to break down the volume into two bodies that do not even seem to be part of the same building, justifying the great hall.

Plaza de la Garduña, in the Raval neighbourhood of Barcelona, is characterized by the uniqueness of the buildings that surround it and give it life: the new Massana School, the Boquería market and the old hospital. Among them, the residential building on the north side of the square responds to this uniqueness with sober neutrality. The building occupies the corner that connects the square with Dr. Fleming’s gardens.