Contemporary

The Hotel Constanza is part of the Illa Diagonal complex. Like the main building, the facade is covered with a travertine rain screen. The narrowness of the drainage cavity is striking, but is interrupted by the lack of cleanliness of the insulation surrounding the fixings.

An exciting challenge by Mecanotubo.

Building construction in the second half of the twentieth century, up to the start of the twenty-first century in Spain due to restrictions on inventiveness imposed by regulations, is characterized by a proliferation of systems for the blind area of façade. All of them are supported as systems by the industry and tend to be prefabricated, dry assembled and fixed.

There are lots of things to say of each of the buildings we publish in this website. However, from the beginning we decided to focus just in one aspect or curiosity for each of them. 

ETICS solutions, which are now so common due to the thermal insulation continuity they allow, were already used twenty-five years ago in designs such as the MACBA building. At that time, achieving continuous rendering without joints was not that simple, as the rendering materials were not as good as the ones we use today.

Lightweight solutions for the rainscreen outer layer were barely known. Probably because the architects did not trust this solution, the inner wall was completely covered with a watertight membrane.

This could not be more adequate.

It is wise in the decision of being discreet, and acute in the selection of all systems and materials. The expertise of the architects as constructors is shown in the accurate design of all the points of relation between the systems and elements.

This is another classic that should not be missed. It is unquestionably impeccable. Let us simply highlight the potential of resorting to a simple curtain wall with a few crucial variations: the exceptional glass with its curvature, texture and roughness; its format and size; and the lack of collinearity between mullions and transoms, enhancing horizontality. All of these factors contribute to accompanying the gesture of both volumes towards the sea. The position of the two blocks, the volumetry and the façade definition all talk the same language.

A very interesting building.

The continuity of the envelope on the façade and roof is only formal, not constructive. The façade solves water tightness by means of a drained cavity, while the roof does so using an absolutely waterproof material. From the outside, they look the same.

In the façade solution of this building we want to draw attention to two factors:

It is surprising how this facade makes a virtue of the sometimes uncomfortable transparency of the glass.
The succession of staggered and slightly overlapped planes that, either reflect the neighboring facades, or exhibit the daily life of the interior space, combined with opaque surfaces placed in different planes and rolling interior sunscreens, manages to create an abstract order that gives coherence to the whole.

Awarded the Pritzker in architecture, the value of this work is undeniable from a formal perspective. However, doubts arise when we consider the functional aspects of thermal and lighting comfort in a Mediterranean climate at 41 degrees latitude.