Santa Caterina Market, Redevelopment / Reforma Mercat de Santa Caterina
Barri Gotic, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona
1997-2004
Enric Miralles / Benedetta Tagliabue EMBT



Photographer: Alex Gaultier

REHABILITATION OF SANTA CATERINA MARKET
Barcelona, 1997-2005
National Award of Generalitat de Catalunya 2001
Spanish Ceramic Awards ASCER 2005 – Architectural Prize



Architects: Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue
Miralles Tagliabue – EMBT

Client: Foment de Ciutat Vella S.A.

Definitive Project 1999-2005



Project Director:
Igor Peraza

Collaborators:
Hirotaka Koizumi, Josep Miàs, Marta Cases, Constanza Chara, Fabián Asunción, Eugenio Cirulli, Santiago Crespi, Gianfranco Grondona, Lluis Corbella, Massimo Chizzola, Makoto Fukuda, Joan Poca, Alejandra Vazquez, Marco Dario Chirdel, Josep Belles. Alicia Bramon, Laura Valentini, Adelaide Passetti, Jorge Carvajal, Andrea Landell de Moura, Torsten Skoetz, Karl Unglaub, Adrien Verschuere, Loïc Gestin, Annie Marcela Henao Ezequiel Cattaneo, Leonardo Giovannozzi, Annette Hoëller, Sabine Bauchmann, Silke Techen,. Barbara Oel Brandt, Mette Olsen, Florencia Vetcher, Nils Becker, Raphael de Montard, Montse Galindo, Barbara Appolloni, Jean François Vaudeville, Peter Sándor Nagy, Ignacio Quintana, Christian Molina, Stefan Geenen, Maarten Vermeiren, Torsten Schmid, Tobias Gottschalk, Stefan Eckert, Ute Grolz, Thomas Wuttke, Luca Tonella, Stephanie Le Draoullec, Monica Carrera, Mirko Sivestri.

Special collaboration: Ricardo Flores, Eva Prats.

Basic Project 1998

Collaborators:
Joan Callis, Makoto Fukuda, Hirotaka Kuizumi, Fabián Asunción, Ane Ebbeskov Olsen, Dani Rosselló, Francesco Mozzati, Francesco Jacques-Dias, Fernanda Hannah.

Competition 18 April 1997

Collaborators:
Elena Rocchi, Makoto Fukuda, Ricardo Flores, Fabian Asunción, German Zambrana, Lluis Cantallops, Anna Maria Tosi, Marc Forteza Parera, Anna Galmer, Liliana Bonforte, Tobias Gottschalk, Stefan Eckert , Ute Grölz, Thomas Wuttke, Luca Tonella, Stéphanie Le Draoullec, Monica Carrera.

Engineer Structure (General): Robert Brufau
Engineer (Roof): Jose Maria Velasco
Engineer (Housing): Miquel Llorens.

Installations: PGI
Ceramic manufacturer: Toni Cumella



Building Description by Adrian Welch:
Most photos of this building are taken looking down on its colourful roof, made up of tessellations with the colours of the fruit sold within the St Caterina Market. Seen from the street the dominant forms are the rippling vaults of the roof edges. The vaults vary in section along their length just as Enric Miralles designed at the Scottish Parliament. However, rather than heavy concrete, here EMBT's touch is light and energetic, a brilliant icon for selling the colourful life of Barcelona.


Photo © adrian welch

Santa Caterina Market redevelopment is, like many Barcelona buildings featured, an organic piece of architecture. The interior is functional and not trying to be cool, allowing the market traders to sell their wares in time-honoured tradition. Seen from street level the Santa Caterina facades are moderately playful with changing rhythms, but overshadowed by the roof in more ways than one. The vaults are quite fluid compared to those in Enric Miralles' Scottish Parliament building.


Photos © adrian welch

But the real drama of the building is its fruitbowl roof, fantastically colourful and playful: more buildings like this in the world and architects' work may start to gain respect lost with the sombre Modern movement.


Enric Miralles - Santa Caterina, Barcelona: photo from EMBT

Enric Miralles : Architecture Books

Enric Miralles - key building: Scottish Parliament

Building close to Mercat de Santa Caterina:
Barcelona Cathedral


Another Barcelona Project by Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue Architects:

Park at Diagonal Mar
Diagonal Mar - Barcelona Forum
Enric Miralles / Benedetta Tagliabue EMBT Architects




Enric Miralles
'Works and Projects, 1975-1995'

Enric Miralles is edited by Juanjo Lahuerta + Benedetta Tagliabue Miralles
1997, Monacelli Press, 400 illustrations, 100 in color, 272pp
Enric Miralles Book

Barcelona Architecture

Barcelona Architects

Photographs:
Alex Gaultier, Nou 25, Sant Antoni de Vilamajor 08459
Telefon +34 93 845 1582 Mobile +34 651 637 353 email alexgaultier@ya.com

Key Barcelona buildings:
Sagrada Familia
Casa Mila
Park Guell
Barcelona Pavilion
Forum Building
Agbar Tower



World Architecture : e-architect - a guide to key buildings across the globe

Enric Miralles book - Works and Projects

St Caterina Market architect : Enric Miralles

Comments / photos for the Santa Caterina Market page welcome:
info@e-architect.co.uk

St Caterina Market Barcelona - page : adrian welch / isabelle lomholt