ATHC Headquarters / XVA Arquitectura

© Jordi Bernadó

Architects: XVA Arquitectura
Location: Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain
Project Authors: Xavier Vancells | Jaume Armengol
Collaborators: Antonio Vagace, Jordi Bosch, Victor Lacima, Manu Pagès, Jordi Ubach, David Brufau, Montse García
Service Engineers: RC Engineers
Structural Engineers: Josep Florència
Quantity Surveyor: Josep Malgosa, Josep Sánchez
Client: ATHC- Atlètic Terrassa Hockey Club
Site Area: 2,568 sqm
Project Area: 1,677 sqm
Project Year: 2006-2009
Photographs: Jordi Bernadó

model 01

Site Integration and fusion

The aim of this project is to refurbish and enlarge of the headquarters of the Atlétic Terrassa Hockey Club.

The ATHC sports facilities are set amidst a splendid landscape directly linked to the Sant Llorenç del Munt Natural Park. Its proximity to the urban nuclei of Terrassa, Matadepera and Sabadell endows it with a strategic position of great potential.

© Jordi Bernadó

The pre-existing building, an old construction dating from 1952, is characterised by its location in the middle of a thick pine forest that creates a pleasant microclimate in which the club’s activities have unfurled. The club’s main hockey field lies right next to the building, setting up an intense interaction between different events.

The Project

The intervention on the building embraces three projectual strategies

floor plan

1. Substraction: The gutting of rooms inside the pre-existing building generates a new empty space with indeterminate characteristics that turns into a bigger social space.
2. Interaction: A new perimeter construction with the new rooms is developed around the emptied central space. It is defined by these rooms, which also multiply the complex’s programmatic possibilities.
3. Connection: The insertion of an interior ramp between the two pre-existing volumes activates the building’s connections with both the surroundings and the perimeter roof, which extends towards the hockey field to create a covered terrace that offers panoramic views of the facilities while serving as an ideal spot from which to watch matches.

© Jordi Bernadó

The new perimeter construction’s placement pays the utmost attention to the pre-existing trees: a house amidst pine trees.

The basic elements in the development of the project and the construction of the building are glass, light and the pre-existing trees, each with the same degree of importance. The end result can only be read in terms of their interaction.