Sant Pau Research Institute forges ahead with new facilities

From tomorrow, researchers at the Santa Creu and Sant Pau Hospital Research Institute will finally have their own building to carry out their scientific research. Until now, the more than fifty research groups have occupied different parts of the hospital. The greater interaction permitted by the new facilities is expected to further improve the quality of their research.

The new building is located at Sant Quintí 75 and stands out due to the extraordinary nature of its architecture, with a translucent ceramic lattice and a walkway connecting the Institute and the hospital. On the outside, the lattice exterior constantly changes appearance throughout the day, from both outside and in. This surface was made from more than 45,000 ceramic pieces sharing the same colour as the façades of the historic building on the outside. The interior, on the other hand, has a vitrified finish with the same colours as the original pieces of the hospital’s modernist domes.

“We aimed to make a very functional, flexible building, not at all ostentatious - economical but at the same time unique”, explains Agustí Grau, director of the Hospital Foundation’s Department of Infrastructures. The Foundation will foot the €15.5 million bill for the cost of the building, which has a high level of energy efficiency.