Kálida Center

The Kálida Center is a space offering emotional, social, and practical support to people with cancer, as well as their families and friends. It is an "open house" for everyone, staffed by qualified professionals ready to provide assistance. It’s a place to meet others, find a quiet corner, or enjoy a cup of tea.

The center is a newly constructed building located on Plot A8, as defined in the Special Urban Planning Plan for specifying the uses of new facilities, organizing buildings and volumes within the grounds of the Hospital de la Santa Cruz y Sant Pau Foundation in Barcelona.

The plot is situated between the new hospital and the original Modernist Hospital. It runs parallel to the new road defined by the Special Urban Planning Plan and aligns with the orthogonal orientation of the modernist site. The plot is located on a slope between the new and the old hospitals, with a service yard and emergency access at a lower level. While the reference level and the "main" facade are defined from the new road, the main access is at the lower level, allowing direct entry from the oncology area of the new hospital.

The project includes a small building of 400 m² and a garden area within the general green zone of the overall site project.

The center is designed as a "garden pavilion," where the boundaries between indoors and outdoors are blurred and variable. It is a building focused on user comfort, offering intimacy, light, cozy corners, and protection around a garden.

The building is organized into two levels of approximately 200 m² each, within the height and building capacity limits defined by the Special Urban Planning Plan. The main entrance is on the Garden Level (below the reference grade), providing direct access to the oncology area of the new hospital through the paved area between them. This zone also allows fire truck access in case of emergency.

The lower level is a garden, sheltered by a series of walls, pergolas, and vegetation that allow the center's various activities to take place. This level features an open and flexible space conceived as a garden or sequence of varied gardens and patios, housing the kitchen, dining area, a small library, and a multipurpose room where different support activities for users can be held. Each space is surrounded by greenery. The boundaries of the patios and gardens, along with the proposed pergolas and trees, control the views from each point, aiming to "disappear" the hospital environment while allowing the use of outdoor areas without feeling observed from the tall buildings surrounding the plot.

The upper level (ground floor according to the reference grade) is at the same level as the new walkway defined by the Special Urban Planning Plan. To reach the entrance area of the lower level, where the lobby is located, a walk through the garden to the entrance patio is proposed.

The upper level is organized around the central double-height space of the dining area, designed as interior balconies. The building becomes more transparent on the south side, facing the modernist buildings, with a wooden shutter screen to maintain privacy.

The richness of materials, textures, colors, geometries, and patterns, along with the vegetation of the modernist buildings on the site, serves as the foundation of the project. Both the gardens and the building—its facades and roof—aim to preserve this richness.

The building’s facade is a brick wall with variable color, texture, and composition, combined with ceramic pieces of different colors and geometries that transform the wall into another element of the garden. The wall transforms into ceramic screens that filter light, control views, provide ventilation, and at the same time, preserve the privacy of those within the center. The part of the facade facing south and the modernist complex has windows also protected with wooden shutters and ceramic elements.

The project pays close attention to its integration into the general garden between the two hospitals, adapting to the different levels and roads. The project is like colorful flowers within the large garden of Sant Pau Hospital.