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The Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB)

This is a project by Mateo Arquitectura and it is located at Diagonal-Mar, Barcelona, Spain. Project's program: Convention centre. There are ten images for The Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB).

: © Infinite: Albert Masias

Project details

Project name: The Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB)
Location: Diagonal-Mar, Barcelona, Spain
Program: Convention centre
Area: Building surface: 85,000 m2
Year: Project: 2000-2001 • Construction: 2002-2004
Client: Infraestructures del Llevant SA
Project by: Mateo Arquitectura
Team: Principal designer: Josep Lluís Mateo • Design team: Jordi Pagès, Anna Llimona, Yolanda Olmo, Virginia Daroca, Marc Camallonga, Elsa Bertan, Hector Mendoza, David Carim, Xavier Monclús, Pilar Ferreres, Lucas Echeveste, Luis Falcón, Odon Esteban
Others: Structural Engineering: Obiol-Moya-Arquitectes • Conditioning Engineering: OIT/INDUS/ARUP • Fire Protection: F. Labastida • Façade Assessment: Biosca & Botey, SA • Artistic intervention: Cristina Iglesias

Project images

Designer's statement

The Barcelona International Convention Centre consists of a large hall (15.000 m2, 80m of structural lighting) that can be divided and a block for associated services that looks out to sea. The hall is both structure and abstraction; the exterior block talks to the sea and the sky. The structure is a musical score of reference.

The climate, the light (and opposite, shade) and sound (and its opposite, silence) have shaped the plot.

The flows (of people and of fluids that are all similar), the masses and the architecture that appears (and frequently) disappears amid them.

-- Josep Lluís Mateo

Functional Outline:

A Strips of offices and services
B Large exhibition space, covered by great girders which in some cases house meeting rooms.
C Public spaces: entrance, restaurants, meeting rooms.

Strip A:

In accordance with regulatory building levels, the movements in strip A reflect the various functional and promotional criteria that were gradually defined. The strip configures a kind of hard wall or border that also had to be permeable, not opaque, and bring together the various scales of interpretation in a feature. They are objects whose lower reaches will be visible at a distance (from the sea, from the Diagonal). From the street, a degree of complex transparency ought to be possible. All of this explains the volumetric evolutions of the strip: how the pieces fracture towards the top in the form of intermediate incisions, the empty spaces between them, and the consistency of their skins, based on the differing qualities of the light in and endeavour to coordinate various languages.

Strip B:

Open-Interrelated /Closed-Autonomous: The images of the main hall explored the conditions of the space: its dimensions, its boundaries and the proposal of a great aperture. They also tested its use against foreseeable events.

Strip C:

Advancing along strip C means reaching a smaller, fragmented grain. Organising it meant fragmenting it further into sub-strips in relation to movements.

(1) Static spaces. (2) Horizontal flows (persons and fluids). (3) Vertical flows (persons and fluids).

The whole three-storey complex is stratified vertically by uses (from the collective to the relatively private) over an underground base of services. Strip 3 has to introduce light into the dark core. The strips are covered with organic skins, in relation with nature.

The roof relates to the mountains. Slopes, guttering and down pipes are like valleys, rivers and lakes. The façade moves with the sea.