COMPETITION – 1ST PRIZE | 2008

The proposal for the new Halls of Residence of the Universitat de Barcelona is designed in a way that its volume becomes a landmark, a sign post indicating the access to the campus, both for pedestrians and for vehicles.

The building has the necessary size to carry out this function, at the same time as it has the grandeur to complement the surrounding buildings, such as the RACC building, on the Avinguda Diagonal, Hotel Juan Carlos I and a series of new housing schemes nine storeys high that configure the built landscape of the street that leads to L’Hospitalet. The building also arranges the access to the UB sprorts grounds, which until now are only accessible with some difficulties form the service lane of Avinguda Diagonal.

The new Halls of Residence is a 14 storey “L” shaped building facing south. As it rises, the building is carved in alternate floors, resulting in a light and well shaped structure. This is done thanks to a very accurate study of the brief, by which the main body of the building holds single rooms at both sides of a central corridor as it rises above the lower floors in which all the accesses and other public areas that require more space are placed. The fact that the façade is facing South allows the possibility to place a series of solar panels in the void created from the 7th to the 14th floor. The double rooms are placed in the most privileged part of the building, facing south-east.