© Ferran Mateo / PRBB

The PRBB is striking for its beauty and its excellent location by the sea. It is an aesthetic attraction that inspires and stimulates scientific activity. Barcelona architects Manel Brullet and Albert de Pineda have designed a scientific infrastructure where researchers can be together, establish connections and communicate with each other in a flexible, honeycomb structure. Despite the technological complexity of the building, it presented a new line of austerity. The main materials used were wood, steel, concrete and glass. This was offset by the richness of the space and its urbanistic expression of volume. In fact, the PRBB, with its 55,000 m2, is one of the largest singular buildings in Barcelona and its surface area is equivalent to an entire block in the Eixample. The surroundings of the PRBB are characterised by the proliferation of unique buildings: the two large towers of the Olympic Village (Mapfre Tower and Hotel Arts), the Gas Natural building, a small residential tower, the monoblock tower of the Hospital del Mar, the fish designed by Frank Gehry and a sports centre.