Rehabilitació i adequació de l'Institut Català de Paleontologia M. Crusafont. Sabadell

The building of the Institute of Paleontology Dr. M. Crusafont is located on a pedestrian area in the center of Sabadell and is a reference building in the city. It is cataloged in the Special Plan for the Protection of the Heritage of Sabadell, file A28 D-1, due to the high architectural value of its volume.

It is a building of the late 60s consisting of a very transparent base and an upper volume that overhangs it protecting the access and it contrasts with the base due to the its opacity produced by the metal slats of its east and west facades and the almost blind front of its south facade. The building has a rectangular floor plan and very rational and modern composition, which contrasts sharply with the current state of its deteriorated interior. It is composed of a ground floor, a basement and two floors of about 375 m² each and they communicate vertically through a single staircase and a single exit.

The adaptation and rehabilitation carried out in this building consisted in the improvement and updating of its interior habitability conditions, introducing the necessary changes to adapt it to all the requirements of the current regulations, maintaining its typological characteristics and adapting it to the new program needs of the Institute, without altering the volume of the building and its facades, nor the disposition of its main organizational elements: the staircase and the elevator. Finally, the MEP systems proposed, construction materials, maintenance and energy efficiency have been chosen from the perspective of maximum sustainability adjusted to the conditions of the existing building and to the uses for which it is suitable.