Santa Caterina Market Building : Architecture

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