El Mercat de Santa Caterina

The wavy, multicoloured Santa Caterina Market roof stands out in the heart of Ciutat
Vella. It recreates the colours of the fresh fruit and vegetables on sale in the market.
A vast sheet of colour
Without any doubt, the most characteristic feature of the striking Mercat de Santa Caterina is the ceramic
mosaic that serves as a roof and pays tribute to the master, Antoni Gaudí. This mantle symbolically recalls the
awnings covering the stalls in the olden days, fluttering in the wind.

Three of the facades of the old, white Neoclassical building have been preserved. Inside, the wooden
ceilings give warmth to a space that needs, above all, to be functional and practical.

History of an iconic market

Santa Caterina began life as a covered municipal market in 1845, on land left by the old convent of the same
name, which was burned down on St James Night in 1835 during the confiscation and sale of Church lands. The
idea was to give the neighbourhood a market that would supply food to the people living on this side of Ciutat
Vella. Decades later, during the years following the Civil War, when food was in short supply in many places,
the market became a centre for supplying neighbouring cities, such as Sant Adrià, Santa Coloma and even
Mataró, from where people came by train to buy groceries.

Today, Santa Caterina is known for the quality and variety of its produce. Generally, it attracts fewer visitors
than the Boqueria, which makes it more tranquil.

It stands in the middle of Ciutat Vella, in the Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera neighbourhood, one of the
parts of the city with the most history.
El Mercat de Santa Caterina | Meet Barcelona

Architectural Classics: Olympic Archery / Enric Miralles &

Carme Pinos
Classics of Architecture: Olympic Archery / Enric Miralles & Carme Pinos

Training Pavilion.

Written by David Langdon

For architects, it is a project perhaps more recognizable in plan than in photograph. The dazzling rhythmic complexity of
the construction plans for Barcelona's Olympic Archery, completed in 1991, brought more fame to the 1992 Olympic
event than any arrow shot from the shadow of the buildings. The drawings show a layering of organic curves and
rectilinear forms working in sublime harmony, producing a composition that clearly conveys both the architects' concept
and the process through which it was developed. Surprisingly, the project was no less spectacular in person than it was
on paper, and its completion helped launch the married couple's partnership of Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós to
international stardom.

© Dieter
Janssen, DJA

Located in the hillside suburb of Barcelona's Valle d'Hebron, the site chosen for the competition was previously a sports
park filled with rugby and soccer fields. The winning design submitted by Miralles and Pinós added two new archery
practice facilities to the complex - a competition pavilion and a training pavilion - separated by the length of a shooting
range. The two buildings are visually distinct, but they are united by a shared design process that takes careful
consideration of the building's place in the landscape. Rationally they do not obey any programmatic or tectonic system
order, they are instead the products of an imaginative and expressive architectural method.

Pabellón de Competencia. Image © Dieter Janssen, DJA

The competition pavilion is composed of two main elements: an exposed concrete wall system overlooking the shooting
range, and a retaining wall located on the hill from which the building emerges. According to the architects, the floor
plan was developed from extrapolations of the pre-existing topographic contour lines and taking into account the
programmatic demands for the sports facilities and locker rooms.

Because the competition was won by Miralles and Pinós at a late date such as 1989, the project required a quick
response in both design and construction. Consequently, the architects specified a modular precast wall system
consisting of a repeating curved concrete panel perforated with holes to allow light to enter. It was intended to be easy
to assemble and disassemble, and unfortunately, a few years ago, the pavilion was dismantled to make room for an
expansion of the city's underground subway, and the concrete elements were placed in warehouses. Interestingly, a
current Google satellite photo of the site shows these once-proud modules lying inert on their sides awaiting removal.

The modules are central to the way the competition pavilion beautifully moderates the consumption of natural light in
the interior spaces. Their triangular and circular perforations choreograph an impressive dance of light and shadow
within the exposed concrete. The architects manipulate the light on the exterior façade as well, where it filters through
louvers and screens placed on the roof with an entirely different but complementary architectural technique.
 © Dieter Janssen, DJA

© Dieter Janssen, DJA

Considering that the competition pavilion is an expressive reading of the site's topography, the form of the training
building was intended to be evocative of the movements of the athletes in it. In fact, there is a directionality to the
training pavilion that is not present in the competition building. The projected roof slabs seem to emerge from the
hillside like arrows from a quiver, and protrude from the walls below them, as if to project the directional gesture
infinitely into the space beyond. These roof sections then lift the walls at different angles, creating a space for the
triforium windows and adding a complex dynamic and visual composition to the building.

The floor plan drawings for the training pavilion are particularly spectacular. They overlap at least three distinct
architectural languages that incorporate both rectilinear forms and organic curves in a thoughtful and balanced, but
ultimately arbitrary, manner. Programmatic requirements were worked into the resulting spaces, and included everything
from restrooms to an archery store.

Today, the training pavilion sits out of place against the backdrop of a soccer field, where it serves as nothing more than a
locker room for the players. With its facilities now dismantled, it reveals to the passerby little of its proud past as a much-
lauded Olympic archery center, and the setting seems distinctly unbecoming of one of Barcelona's architectural
treasures. As a result, the building's legacy survives not through the charm of the building's skyline or through the first-
hand accounts of visitors, but through Miralles and Pinós' articulate Drawings that reveal their unique approach to
process-based design.

Cortesía de los Arquitectos

 Cortesía de los Arquitectos

Detalle Pabellón de Entrenamiento. Image © Dieter Janssen, DJA

-
BARCELONA, SPAIN

Architects: Enric Miralles & Carme Pinos; Enric Miralles & Carme Pinos

Year:

1991

Photographs: Dieter Janssen, DJA

https://www.archdaily.cl/cl/627329/clasicos-de-arquitectura-tiro-con-arco-olimpico-enric-miralles-and-carme-pinos