Parque Científico de la Salud [BioPol]

Client: BIOPOL’H

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Date: 2010 Competition

Area: 49,500m2

Budget: €68 million

AZPML: Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Robert Berenguer, Pep Wennberg, Ravi Lopes

Our proposal for the future Health Scientific Park BioPol (PCS) aims to create an important presence in the current urban landscape, becoming one new reference both in respect to the immediate environment —the medical campus— and for the city at large, as a prominent object in the skyline from the highway.

The project has been designed as a compact, tall volume which will stand out in the urban skyline, relying on the alignment between the Carrer de las Ciències and the new connecting street with the Gran Via.

Compacting the mass of the building will free the ground level to locate two new squares:

Plaça Oest is the public space between the Duran i Reynals Hospital and PCS BioPol. This space will maintain its current quality as a rest area linked to the hospital, acting as the access point to public transport, and the connection to the hospital complex.

Plaça Est is the public space oriented towards Barcelona. It is an open space that articulates the relationship between the new building of the Laboratories Ferrer and the future PCS BioPol. It will become the arrival hall for the pedestrians connection to Bellvitge and l’Hospitalet.

The building is structured into two nested L-shaped volumes surrounding a semi-closed atrium. One of them contains the research labs, and the other hosts the facilities of the Research Council.

The access atrium articulates both buildings for IIBB and BioPol. This space is mainly oriented towards Plaça Est through a large void in the BioPol mass, and at the same time provides pedestrian connections toward Carrer de les Ciències and Plaça Oest. The atrium, which will have controlled access will be connected with the public programs (cafeteria, auditorium, restaurant) that consolidate it as a meeting point, and as an informal point of exchange with the external communities: the agora of the new PCS BioPol.