Santa Caterina Market


  • Caption
    View of Exterior
Related person
Enric Miralles (architect)
Location
Europe->Spain->Catalonia->Barcelona
Description
The original Santa Caterina Market was first built in the 19th century over the remains of a Medieval convent, which burned down in 1835. It became an important public space within Barcelona's dense urban texture of the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter), but by 1997 the market and its area had begun to languish. Through their competition-winning entry in 1997, architecture firm of EMBT spearheaded the effort to introduce a "bottom-up" urban regeneration solution that included the design of new housing blocks and strengthened existing routes through the market's area. This urban regeneration solution is driven by the dramatic, polychromatic flowing form of a tiled roof which is suspended over the market. The original arched 19th century walls are kept on three sides, but on the south-east side a fractured geometry occurs, integrating the market with a new public plaza and two new housing blocks. -- Slessor, Catherine. (2005, November). Market Forces: Santa Caterina Market, Barcelona, Spain. Architectural Review, 1305, 46. Keywords: Spain, Barcelona, commercial structures. Submitted by Sabrina Sierawski.
Style/Period
2000s (2000 - 2009)
Material
heavy timber frame construction
steel