Refurbishment and rehabilitation of the former Can Minguell Factory (1850)

The project proposal is to adapt the industrial building of Can Minguell into a new use. The Mataró Council moves to provide the city with a new mixed-use space (public/private), for both collective activities (workshops, exhibitions, etc…) and offices. The intervention is performed in the main hall of the Can Minguell’s factory complex (1850). The building has a ground floor and three high floors. His structure is composed of cast iron pillars and braced timbrel vaults. The double pitched roof rests on wooden trusses. The facade shows various changes and additions made over time.

The principles of the intervention were:

1.To recover the original geometry of the building, where possible.

2.To maintain the spaces generated by the whitewashed braced timbrel vaults, as well as the foundation pillars, as system of free plan, flexible in time.

3.To concentrate services and meeting areas in the hall’s headwall, taking advantage of a change in the structure.

4.To retrieve and valorise the materiality of the different characteristic elements of the industrial complex; creating a few atmospheres (light and matter) to articulate the essence of the building with the new programs, the different times and scales of perception.

5.To organize the flow of people inside the building, keeping the position of the two pre-existent cores and rectifying old changes to the original structure. Taking advantage of a change in the structure, the main core is placed in the module adjacent to the northwest facade, without compromising the main hall. A new safety core is disposed on the southeast facade, composed by just one metal staircase which fades materiality and gives transparency.