Barcelona, Spain
A new addition to Maggie’s Centres, Kálida San Pau Centre by Benedetta Tagliabue and EMBT Architects takes cues from its environment, historical context, and Art Niveau traditions to shape healing spaces for cancer patients.
Maggie’s Centers are spaces next to existing hospitals that are dedicated to caring for cancer patients, offering free emotional and practical support.
The project develops the therapeutic and psychological dimension of architecture integrated with landscape, to support the communities and generate common spaces where one can share their emotions and experiences.
For its attention to detail from interiors to landscaping, Kálida Sant Pau Centre has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The building is unique, the first in Spain of its genre, composed of a 400 square meter pavilion opened to a garden.
It is located inside the Art Nouveau complex of Sant Pau Hospital, a UNESCO World Heritage site, between the new hospital and the original Art Nouveau buildings.
The building is parallel to a new road defined by the special urban plan of the area and follows the orthogonal plan of the original project.
Placed between the old and the new hospitals, the building shapes a new topography for the inner park, given its situation between two levels.
On the lower level, the pavilion is opened up to the surrounding garden, while on the upper level, large windows offer a connection to the original Art Nouveau hospital.
The connection from the hospital’s oncology department is marked by a closed wall with a single door that gives access to the illuminated garden entrance.
The ground floor is conceived as a flexible space around a double-height dining space.
Here the architects placed a hall and a high-ceiling dining room, a small library, and a multipurpose room.
The continuous spaces can be separated by sliding doors, according to specific needs.
The rooms on the upper floor revolve around the central double-height space.
All the rooms offer views of the garden and the Art Nouveau buildings by Domènech i Montaner.
The interior design has been developed by Patricia Urquiola alongside Benedetta Tagliabue – Miralles Tagliabue EMBT Arquitectos.
In every space, it reflects the sensitivity and comfort necessary for this unique project.
Together with Benedetta Tagliabue, the project director of Kálida Sant Pau Center is Joan Callís, partner at Miralles Tagliabue EMBT office since coordinating the project for the Scottish Parliament (1998-2004).
The Kálida Sant Pau Center hosts a free assistance program that compliments the medical treatments given at the nearby hospital.
Thus, it achieves easy access from the hospital’s oncology department.
From the superior levels of the hospital, the Kálida Center can be recognized by its green ceramic tile roof.
The new pavilion is inspired by nature and integrated into the Art Nouveau tradition.
The building scale, the façade design, and the garden establish a respectful dialogue with the surrounding environment: the Sant Pau Hospital complex in Barcelona, built at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Kálida Sant Pau Center continues the original idea of Lluís Domènech i Montaner’s —one of the masters of Art Nouveau Modernisme in Catalan, Spain— architecture: to create innovating spaces of unique beauty, where nature, especially flowers, harmonize with the place, helping to heal the soul.
The building and garden plans are based on the collage works of EMBT, inspired by the extraordinary floral ceramics existing in the pavilions of the original hospital.
The building façade is a brick wall with glazed ceramic insertions, assembled in a varying composition of colors and textures. Together with the wooden blinds, the ceramic latticework allows for views of the surrounding environment and protects the privacy of inner spaces.
Wooden details and carpentry in windows and the big pergola outside are inspired by the shapes of the greenery existing in the garden.
Several foundations (Nous Cims, Kálida, Fundació Privada Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Fundació de Gestió Sanitària de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau) are the driving forces behind this new building.
It is part of Maggie’s Centers’ international network, which has produced an extensive list of buildings by renowned architects such as Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid, OMA, and Steven Holl.
The Kálida Sant Pau Center is a space of emotional, social, and practical support for cancer patients and the people around them.
The building is a home open to everyone, where qualified professionals offer their assistance… a house to meet other people, a house where one can find a quiet retreat or have a cup of tea.
The main objective of the project is to improve the life quality of the patients and their close families.
The architect Benedetta Tagliabue has poured her own experience into the design of the building, after directly living through the process of the disease with Enric Miralles, her life and working partner.
Project: Kálida Sant Pau Center
Architects: Benedetta Tagliabue – EMBT Architects
Lead Architect: Benedetta Tagliabue
Project Director: Joan Callís
Project Coordinator: Valentina Nicol Noris
Design Team: Enrico Narcisi, Gabriele Rotelli, Marianna Mincarelli, , Paola Amato, Helena Carì, Astrid Steegmans, Liza Zanin, Federico Volpi, Letizia Artioli,Giovanni Vergantini, Paula Gheorgue, Esther Saliente Soler, Vincenzo Cicero, Sofia Barberena, Philip Lemanski, Marco Nucifora, María Cano Gómez, Carlo Consalvo, Luis Angello Coarite Asencio, Teymour Benet, Cecilia Simonetta, Edurne Oyanguren, Yilin Mao, Marilena Petropoulou, Ludovica Rolando, Mikaela Patrick, Erez Levinberg, Pablo López Prol, and Mabel Aguerre
General Contractor: Construcciones Pérez Villora S.A.
Client: Fundación Privada Kālida
Photographers: Duccio Malagamba and Lluc Miralles
