Hotel Nuevo Triunfo

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BACKGROUND: The Hotel Nuevo Triunfo project by Flores and Prats (the studio practice of Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores) is the rehabilitation of an industrial building and conversion into a 40-room hotel. The project was an experiment with the colours of ceramic bricks and design possibilities offered by bricklaying. In 2018, the project was selected to be part of the exhibition 'Brick by Brick: Ceramics Applied to Architecture' at the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona (Barcelona Design Museum), the first major exhibition on the uses, symbolism and aesthetics of brick and ceramics applied to architecture. CONTRIBUTION: Focusing on the brick façade of the building, the architects paid homage to the history of theatre in the district where the building was located. The façade was designed as a curtain of coloured bands of brick; the inhabitants of the hotel seemed to appear and disappear between the folds of the curtains. The narrow, vertical bands of bricks - while expressing their non-bearing function - also echo the vertical strips of the neighbouring houses in the same street, continuing the existing colours of yellow, orange and red. This project demonstrates Prats' ongoing practice in the rehabilitation and reoccupation of buildings with an approach that is poetic and sensitive to its local and social context. SIGNIFICANCE: The significance of this project is evidenced by its inclusion in the 'Brick by Brick' exhibition by curator Pedro Azara. This was a major show featuring ceramic pieces and projects, created over a period of twelve thousand years, from leading European museums and collections. The Barcelona Design Museum is the most important museum in Barcelona dedicated to design, fashion and decorative arts.