COLL-BARREU ARQUITECTOS

Status: In Progress

  • Surgical Block

    Surgical Block

    The intervention understands the existing Hospital of Bidasoa as a constructed field rather than a finished object. Its accumulated layers, organized through a system of wings and courtyards, contain the capacity for transformation. The project operates by subtraction:a precise removal within the built mass creates the space for a new presence to emerge.

    Part of the original volume is carefully hollowed out. This void becomes preparation. Within it, a new structure is introduced, light, metallic, and autonomous, establishing a direct relationship with the ground and remaining independent from the pre-existing building. The encounter between both systems is defined by proximity and dialogue.

    This inserted body accommodates the surgical program as a compact and efficient core. The operating suites are arranged in a clear sequence, dimensioned for contemporary practices and open to evolving demands. Mechanical and electrical systems are integrated within its depth, forming a coherent infrastructural layer.

    Positioned at the geometric and functional center of the complex, the new volume organizes connections with the surrounding hospital fabric. Flows of patients, staff, and resources converge with clarity, and circulation becomes continuous and structured by proximity.

    Above, the metallic framework unfolds as an inhabited infrastructure. Its depth accommodates installations while modulating space and light. Openings carved into this structure introduce natural illumination into preparatory areas, bringing orientation and calm to the sequences of care.

    The surrounding courtyards gain renewed intensity. Preserved and amplified, they become active landscapes defined by soft surfaces and continuous paths, integrating exterior space into the daily experience of the hospital while extending its capacity through a precise and reversible new layer.

  • Diagnostic Center & Medical School

    Diagnostic Center & Medical School

    The Diagnostic Center and School of Medicine will be a leading center for research and clinical care. The Center will be one of the first in Europe to systematically incorporate robotic medical laboratories.

    This hospital facility has more than 400 specialized consultation rooms, robotic laboratories, a diagnostic center, a surgical suite, and specialized medical units.

    The facility also houses a School of Medicine with robotic classrooms, a medical library, and a Conference Center that can accommodate 800 people.

    The center features 1,200 naturally ventilated covered parking spaces and a station on the Bilbao metro network. Both facilities will improve connectivity with the rest of the city.

    Despite its large scale, the design establishes a network of pedestrian walkways and gathering areas, both indoors and outdoors, connected to the surrounding landscape and the new gardens.

    Its construction represents a challenge in sustainability and land restoration. The Center is being built on a degraded site that was used as a landfill for excavation spoil during the 1980s. The new facility will restore the area both environmentally and urbanistically.

  • Cultural Mixed-Use Building

    Cultural Mixed-Use Building

    The site occupies a privileged position in the upper part of the city, surrounded by a large public park of oaks, elms, and lime trees, and offering expansive views towards the mountains. The area is characterized by a series of high-quality modern buildings, many of them the result of international architectural competitions. This project was intended to complete that sequence, although its development coincided with the European economic crisis of 2008 and remains unbuilt.

    The program is both ambitious and inherently civic. Several public administrations agreed to consolidate a group of cultural institutions within a single building, sharing site, services, design, construction, and operational resources. The project brings together a municipal parking structure, an Official Language School, a Music School, a School of Native Language and Culture, and a City Auditorium.

    This coexistence of multiple institutions within a single structure defines the project. Constructed with restrained materials—primarily stone and stucco—and with carefully controlled openings, the building is organized as a vertical stacking of distinct programmatic bars. This configuration is intended to foster relationships between uses: visual connections, spatial overlaps, and moments of encounter between different groups of users.

    The interior is conceived as a continuous environment, where movement across levels allows users to experience the building as a shared space. Roofs are accessible at various heights, functioning as outdoor terraces oriented towards the landscape. The Auditorium itself participates in this dual condition, capable of opening or closing its stage towards the valley.

    While each institution retains a degree of formal and spatial autonomy, the building can be understood both as a composition of distinct parts and as a unified whole. The result is a collective structure that reflects a civic ambition: an architecture that embodies the idea of shared effort and common ground—a built expression of democratic collaboration.