Budget Hotel
An international chain of one-star hotels has gone for a dynamic impact for its Spanish debut, with a gold-coated facade.
An international chain of one-star hotels has gone for a dynamic impact for its Spanish debut, with a gold-coated facade.
The hotel sits on a main thoroughfare, Avinguda de la Granvia, in L‘Hospitalet de Llobregat, and is walking distance from the major convention centre, Fira Barcelona Gran Via. The municipality – the second most populous in Catalonia – is in the Barcelona metropolitan area, to the immediate south-west of the city centre and just 10km from the airport.
This 204-bedroomed hotel announces itself with a stunning metallic facade, courtesy of Axalta’s Alesta® AP, Architectural Polyester in Anodic Gold, giving the exterior a smooth matt gold finish.
It’s the design of Corada Figueras, the local architecture practice founded in 2001 by Milan-born Franco Corada and Barcelona-born Virginia Figueras. The duo has a string of high-profile hotels to their name, including Barcelona’s Hotel Me, and Hotel de Las Letras in Madrid.
We talked to Corada Figueras to find out more about the design of the hotel’s iconic facade.
What was your thinking behind selecting Axalta’s Architectural Polyester in Anodic Gold?
The building is located in a very visible point of the city, so it needed an expressive facade. Our aim with the Anodic Gold was to play with the traditional associations of gold and its luxurious connotations. We had fun disrupting people’s expectations by applying it to a one-star hotel.
What impact were you hoping to make with this colour choice on such an important and busy location?
We wanted the golden skin to create a vibrant and dynamic facade that interacted with and complemented the streetscape. The colour choice is a determining element in how the building is experienced, because the chromatic perception of colours adds value to every user’s spatial perception.
How does the design, texture and colour of your facade interact with Barcelona’s strong light levels?
The reflections of golden tones and the reflections on the surfaces of the facade help to dematerialize the building’s volume. The brise-soleil system is constructed of deployé sheet metal and its irregular geometries also play a fundamental role. Together with the colour, the play of light and shadow that they create change throughout the day, depending on the natural light from the outside and the reflections on the facade.
The facade shows what can happen when colour, geometry, light and shadow come together. The result is an engaging, ever-changing interplay between the new building, its users, its neighbours and the environment.
