Josep Lluís Mateo Resumes Construction on Barcelona's “El Ninot” Market

The office of Josep Lluís Mateo has shared with us their “El Ninot” Market project. In 2008, Mateo Arquitectura won the first prize in the public competition for the reconstruction of this historic food market in the heart of Barcelona, Spain. After being on hold for a while, construction has now finally begun and is well under way.

Project Description from the Architects:

El Ninot market plays a key role in Barcelona’s food distribution network and is positioned accordingly, with a strategic central location.

The intervention we propose aims to maintain the existing facility and equip it with new, up-to-date services, keeping the market’s historical memory alive and adapting it to contemporary use.

This intervention in El Ninot market in Barcelona takes as its departure point the value present in the existing building.

What we find interesting about El Ninot market is its urban presence.

The site, the volume and its impressive metal structure.

The Original State:

Architects: Antoni de Falguera and Joaquim Vilaseca
Period: 1894-1928
Original Use: Facility (market)
Interventions: Mantaining the volume and the visibility inside of the structure

The building occupies an elongated site between Carrer Villarroel, Carrer Casanova and Carrer Mallorca, where the main façade is situated. The floor plan obeys a T-shape, producing two spaces to the sides and a passage to the rear, providing light and ventilation. The passage also acts as a car park for customers.

The metal structure comprises three volumes. The two side volumes are subdivided into three ridge roofs, with the middle roof raised to provide ventilation and daylighting. The complex is enclosed by a three-metre masonry wall and a louvered facing that allows ventilation and regulates solar radiation.

The main entrance gives onto Carrer Mallorca and is raised approximately 1.5 m above street level. The building also has an entrance in each of the side streets and a further two in the passage that runs along the rear façade.

Mateo Arquitectura’s proposal

The project will represent urban and formal improvements. The planned intervention serves to renovate the market physically and formally, by means of five actions:

1. Conservation of the market’s existing structure.
2. Intervention in the entrances, particularly Carrer Mallorca, creating ease of access and recovering the squares on either side.
3. Recuperation of the building’s skins: façades and roofs.
4. Use of the basement to build a self-service facility, car park, loading area and storage space, to respond to the programme.
5. Freeing up space inside the market, concentrating communication and installations shafts for greater flexibility and future uses.

Existing structure

The market’s metal truss structure is its most characteristic element. Its large dimensions suggest a “covered market place” for public use, which is the germ of all markets.

Vehicle entrances

Two accesses are planned to the basement floors:

• For cars entering from Carrer Casanova, and
• For merchandise entering from Carrer Villarroel, leading to the loading/unloading bays

The two entrances are connected on the first basement to make the basement floors more flexible.

Pedestrian access

Pedestrian access is facilitated by a reworking of the main front entrance in Carrer Mallorca, where there is a difference in level of 1.5 meters between the level of the market and street level.

The solution reorganizes the entrance: the steps are replaced by a doorway at street level leading to a centralized space of entrances and vertical communications. The circumstance of entering between levels is exploited to offer a good view of the interior: people entering are easily able to situate both the market and the self-service facility on the level below.

The entrances in the streets to either side, Villarroel and Casanova, are maintained in their situation practically at the level of the market.

Clearing the pavements.

Special stalls

The stalls outside in the side streets are built into the market’s façades to free up pavement space.

The railings on the chamfered corners are also removed, freeing up space for the city.

Floor plan of the market place

The floor plan is laid out around two nucleuses of functions and communications:

• the new entrance in Carrer Mallorca, and
• the volume housing the offices, services and installations on the south side of the passage.

These actions free up the floor plan to accommodate the required number of stalls. The space has to be open and accessible, and the installations have to allow this: all the infrastructures that can be housed in the floor will be, and measures will be taken to limit the height of those that have to pass above the stalls.

Occupation of the basement

Two basement levels are created to house a self-service facility (1600 m2), a car park with 95 spaces, a loading bay of approximately 1000 m2 and storage space for the market and the self-service facility.

Intervention in the roof

The existing roof structure is preserved and the facings are replaced to improve insulation and soundproofing.

Intervention in the façades

The configuration and proportion of the façades and facings are retained, comprising the base wall, stained-glass windows, lattices and eaves.

The project involves an important intervention at pedestrian level, in the street. The base wall, where the outside stalls are situated, is “cut away” to house these stalls, which are thereby set into the structure.

This solution serves to free up the pavement. At the same time, the new stall design organises the market’s outer appearance: shutters serve to close the stalls or provide sunshading when they are open.

As regards protection from sunlight shining into the market, the proposed project rechannels the entrance of daylight via a new lattice that acts as a filter.

The eaves, the prolongation of the roof, are maintained. In fact, they are necessary in the configuration of the façade, adding a finishing touch or providing solar protection in areas where the ventilation outlets are located.

Project Details:

Architect: Josep Lluís Mateo
Client: Institut Municipal de Mercats de Barcelona-IMMB
Site: Calle Mallorca 135, Barcelona
Competition: 2008
Construction: 2010 - in progress
Surface: 15,000 m2
Budget: 20,209,000 Euros

All images courtesy of Josep Lluís Mateo.