9 BOTBUILDING

When a building has to be demolished in the dense urban fabric of the gothic quarter of Barcelona the void created is not easily consolidated. In short everything around you tries to fall down. When you add the subterranean river which forced us to drive foundations to a depth of 14 metres (47ft.) without access for heavy machinery to work, the structural challenge alone seems sufficient. This void also has to contain an intensive program which required a maximum of natural light - a rare comodity in an area with 2.5m (8ft.) wide streets. On a formal level we negated the existence of a new façade stretching the existing three façades to envelope the new built volume.