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PRESS RELEASE

Flexbrick ceramic material plays key role in La Gota Cultural

Centre in Navalmoral de la Mata, Cáceres, Spain.

• The building's façade consists of a double skin comprising a glass wall and

Flexbrick ceramic material – a thermal protection system that prevents

excessive solar heat gain during the summer months.

• A hybrid building designed to house exhibitions, the cultural centre consists

of box-like structures stacked irregularly to form five storeys.

Barcelona, 8 February 2016 – The La Gota Cultural Centre is a 1,200-square metre

building designed by Losada García Architects (Ramiro Losada-Amor and Alberto García Jiménez), a company that was chosen by the American magazine Architectural

Record as one of the world’s top ten most innovative architectural firms in 2015. Designed to house art exhibitions, this hybrid building will also be the home of the Tobacco Museum. It is hoped that this structure will help to create a

new urban focal point, becoming an architectural symbol of the town of Navalmoral de la Mata in Cáceres, Spain.

The geometry of the centre’s design was inspired by a tobacco plant and the principle of equality and diversity represented by its leaves, which are the same, but each distinct at the same time. To provide a vertical connection between floors as well as structural support, there is a central shaft around which five equally-sized and shaped storeys are arranged, each with a different height and orientation. These five storeys form irregularly stacked boxes whose floor slabs are staggered to form overhanging areas, creating a stacked box effect. The double-skin façade is composed of a glass envelope and Flexbrick ceramic material, which offers protection from heat and sunlight, preventing overheating during the summer months, while directing the visitor’s gaze from the inside and evoking the patterns of traditional tobacco drying sheds. The

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Flexbrick latticework weighs less than traditional open brickwork, creating a more lightweight structure.

Inside, the lighting ambience is reminiscent of a tobacco drying shed, thanks to the Flexbrick ceramic material whose design was inspired by the traditional brickwork usually seen in those structures. Light enters the building through the gaps created by the pattern of the façade. This creates a dematerialized elevation of refined geometries, which allows the walls to filter the incoming sunlight.

A public square has been created between the Cultural Centre and

the adjacent building, flanked by a green wall on one side and a ceramic screen on the other, which helps to cool the building during the summer months, saving energy in turn. (All of the photographs in this document are by photographer Miguel de Guzmán)

Technical specifications on Flexbrick and its installation

• Flexbrick is a flexible vertical lattice made of ceramic material with a surface mass of

25 to 45 kg/m2, using 20 to 36 ceramic pieces per square metre to form a pattern. There are three patterns available with different finishes: covering 100%, 50% and 80% (the latter in a random pattern).

• These lattices are hung in pieces (< 10 m in length) using a crane and vertical guides incorporated in the ceramic material itself, which are then placed into support brackets fixed to the support structure, in addition to a proportional number of retaining anchors, plates and clips fixed to the support structure.

• Total surface area (once installed): 1,204 m2 using 290 Flexbrick units. • Dimensions of each ceramic unit: 240 mm x 100 mm x 30 mm. • Flexbrick lattice steel braiding type: pre-corrugated woven 2-mm diameter wires

made of AISI 31.6 grade stainless steel.

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Flexbrick ceramic material

This material was created by the architect Vicente Sarrablo, director of the Technical Department and Head of the Ceramics Department at the International University of Catalonia’s School of Architecture. Developed by two companies in the ceramic sector in Spain –Piera Ecocerámica and Cerámica Malpesa– Flexbrick is an industrially-produced system based on flexible sheets with ceramic, metallic, glass, wood and other elements to create pavement, cladding and lightweight lamellar structures. The ceramic textile speeds up construction and opens up a new range of possibilities for architectural dry cladding systems. This system allows you to “dress” façades, roofs, open areas, etc. Architects can customise their design according to the needs of each project. Numerous architectural firms have used Flexbrick for their projects, including: Archikubik, Blur Arquitectura, Michèle&Miquel, Pich Architects, PMMT, Juan Trias de Bes –TDB Arquitectura and LG Arquitectos, just to name a few. For more information, please visit: www.flexbrick.net Losada García Arquitectos This is a young architectural firm formed by Ramiro Losada-Amor and Alberto García Jiménez, founded in 2007 in Navalmoral de la Mata, Spain. Selected in 2015 by American Magazine Architectural Record as one of the world’s top ten most innovative studios, the firm currently has offices in Cáceres, Spain and San Diego, California. Their designs are characterised by “contemporary and avant-garde language” and for the architects’ interest in understanding the location, setting and materials of the place where they construct their buildings. For more information, please visit: www.losadagarcia.com For more information: Àngels Clotet +34 617 46 75 47 angels@clotetcomunicacion.com