The building, like its context, faces the main historical axis of Pere IV, (Poblenou, Barcelona). We are in a heterogeneous urban context where old industrial buildings from the 19th century coexist along with other preexisting belongings of the new urban plot of the expansion of Barcelona.

The proposal recognises and respects this historical condition of the place, symbolically relating to the industrial preexistence of “La Escocesa” and “Ca l’Alier”. The materials, the light, the shapes, the plasticity of the façade, the heights and the new public space create a bridge between the industrial past of the neighbourhood with the time in which we currently find ourselves.

The courtyards are conditioned by two main features. On one hand, there is their anthropological condition, as spaces for relationships, as propitious places for the intimacy of people who live and work in the building, generating opportunities for social interaction, that otherwise would never have existed.

On the other hand, there is its climatic condition, as a passive and natural system of environmental control against the high temperatures that the environment suffers. The courtyard regulates the temperature inside the volume. It also generates drafts, allows natural lighting inside and its contact with the outside, nature and the constant light.

The space frames the different physical relationships that people are subjected to inside the building. The interior is conceived as a superposition of spatial layers that give the user an experience, not so much visually due to the continuous contact with the exterior and nature, but rather perceptible. As well as articulating the three volumes and relating the building’s dwellings, this place also orders the vertical and horizontal routes of the interior and acts as a place for exchange, meeting and conversation between senior people.