Hotel Santos Porta Fira

The project is being done in collaboration with the Japanese architect Toyo Ito. Located between Barcelona airport and the city, the Torres Fira project is the gateway to the new Hospitalet de Llobregat trade fair zone.

One of the great priorities was to respond to its setting and take advantage of the site’s strategic position between to major projects—Plaça Europa and Fira 2000—acting as a gateway and bridge between them. The office building, orthogonal in shape, located perpendicularly to the Plaça Europa axis and laid out at 30º with respect to Gran Via, becomes a termination for the square and dialogues with the other side of Gran Vía, where there are two orthogonal towers perpendicular to this axis. The hotel uses a similar language: the building. Its subtle trefoil ground-plan is gradually rotated with increasing height and opens up like a flower at the top. 

The tower turns on its own axis, greeting as it does so the city, the airport, the Plaça Europa and the trade fair site, the viewer’s perception of it constantly changing as it does so. This perception is complemented by a second tower, which at first sight is a simple volume, but which contains a nucleus that also rotates on its axis, reflecting the other tower.

Why did you opt for two contrasting towers?

Toyo Ito: Our primary concern was to link the two functionally different towers, a hotel and an office building. We proposed the induction of associative imagery by means of two contrasting forms for the external volumes, and a similar language for the hotel envelope and office corc.
 

What is the surplus value of making an organically shaped tower?

As opposed to the usual institutional trade fair setups, we wanted to bring in flexibility and introduce floating spaces. The red hotel building also symbolizes fluidity, as it forms an extension of the continuous circulation corridor underneath the two towers.

What does the cladding of aluminium pipe louvers add to the concept?

We think that the most effective way to visualize the organic form of a twisted cylinder is to draw vertical lines. Of course, the louvers also function as an efficient insulation of the exterior wall.

Why red?

Bright red pays homage to the passion of Spam.