Law School, Pompeu Fabra University 

Through a jury including Josep Emili Hernández Cros, Benedetta Tagliabue and Manuel Gausa, among others, this year Barcelona's City Hall honored the law school that the team of Martorell, Bohigas & Mackay built in the old Roger de Lluria barracks for Pompeu Fabra University. This public institution, which far from adopting the model of American campuses has consolidated its image in refurbished buildings immersed in the urban fabric, thus expands its facilities next to Ciudadela Park. The new faculty takes up one of the first blocks of the Ensanche grid beside the constructions occupying the Jaume I barracks and the library installed in an old water tank. Although its facades preserve the original character of the military edifice, the small courtyards are merged in a large atrium covered by diagonally positioned skylights, transforming this central space into an active forum for cultural exchange. From the sides of this covered atrium, a prism accommodating classrooms behind a glass skin and another containing offices and clad with wood rise as visible signs of the building’s new purpose.