The City Council of Xixona (Alicante) commissioned us to design a representative building in which the Local Police could have their offices as well as spaces for citizen attention. From the office we thought it would be interesting to include in the programme a public space available to the neighbourhood and with an independent operation that could be used by the neighbours as a multipurpose space.
STUDIO NAME: Daniel Martí & Natàlia Ferrer, architects
DESIGN TEAM: Daniel Martí & Natàlia Ferrer, architects
AREA: 842 m2
YEAR: 2010
LOCATION: Avenida Joan Fuster s/n, Xixona, Alicante (Spain)
CONSULTANTS:
Julián Garrote – Technical architect
Sergio Mira – Technical architect
José María Jódar – Technical architect
David Boixader – structure engineer
Òscar Galiana – installations engineer
Desla ingeniería – installations engineer
PHOTOGRAPHER: David Zarzoso
MAIN BUILDER: Castelló, Construcciones e Infraestructuras S.L.
PROMOTER: Xixona Townhall
This neighbourhood space, occupying the same facilities as the local police, allowed us to turn the project into something more than an office building and helped us to ensure that the relationship between the citizens and the building was not only for police reasons, which are usually unpleasant.
The significant unevenness of the site on which the building sits led us to consider it as a prism with two levels offset parallel to the main street. The upper volume is adjusted to the alignment of the street and generates a smooth and comfortable access to the interior of the building through a ramp protected by an aluminium lattice that functions as an extension of the public pavement, while the lower volume is slightly recessed, marking a cut in shadow that generates the sensation that the building levitates on a concrete base. Taking advantage of the unevenness of the street, the upper volume, which began as a ground floor, ends up becoming a first floor which, with its 5 m overhang, serves as an access porch to the multifunctional space.
The upper level of the building houses the police offices and public service areas, while the ground floor is shared between the restricted-use areas and the multifunctional space. Finally, the basement, which is illuminated by a patio, houses the storage and changing rooms.
Daniel Martí – dmp arquitectura
Daniel Martí i Pérez was born in Onil (Alicante – Spain), he studied architecture at the ETSAB (Barcelona) and get the degree in 2002.
He started working with Cristina Jover in Barcelona and later with Dolores Alonso and ocasionally with Javier García-Solera in Alicante until 2010, since then he leads his own professional Studio.
His work always seeks the same objective, to optimize results through a dialogue with clients, users, collaborators and contractors, but also with the technique, materials, environment and history. This allows him to obtain results that are always tailored to the client’s expectations.
The works of the Studio (alone or in several collaborations) has received several national awards and has been included in several architectural publications.
