Room 2030 is a prototype hotel space displayed at the landmark Niemeyer Center in Aviles, Asturias. Constructed off-site and assembled in just four hours, it is designed to showcase sustainable, fast and efficient construction, uniting creative design and healthy living spaces with advanced technologies and connectivity.
It was developed in response to plans by the NH Collection Palacio de Aviles Hotel for a four-storey modular extension to be built on top of an existing 17th century building; and seeks to explore the kinds of modular construction technologies suitable for both hospitality and healthcare settings.
The project is the latest collaboration between ArcelorMittal Construction and the Baragaño Architecture Studio. Sergio Baragaño, director and founder of the studio, worked within our Building and Construction Support department 15 years ago under the leadership of Maria José Sanchez. Since then, he has continued to work closely with our R&D center and was involved in the recent renovation of the Aviles headquarters.
We spoke to Sergio about Room 2030, which he describes as a ‘natural evolution’ of his earlier B-Home project, which focused on modular, prefabricated housing. It uses products which are more advanced than those used in the B-Home, including ArcelorMittal Construction’s all-in-one high performance Archisol® wall cladding system combined with an aesthetic skin for the façade and our prefabricated flat-roof panel Ondatherm® Deck system for the roof.
For this project, Sergio chose the Eclectic® 7.61.50B architectural profile for its barcode effect in Hairexcel® Gold. Both solutions are the result of continuous innovation by ArcelorMittal Construction, developing industrialized solutions that reduce installation times and minimize waste.
For Sergio, the biggest challenge in this long and complex project was to integrate the technologies and products of all the consortium partners involved, without jeopardizing the original concept and design of the hotel space. At the end though, the result was faithful to the original drafts of the project ideated by Sergio and ArcelorMittal’s Global R&D Director, Nicolas de Abajo.
Sergio was born and raised in an industrial area very like Asturias and attributes much of his interest in industrialized design to this, saying: “Most of my family on my father’s side has been linked to the steelmaking industry and I have always been fascinated by the industrial world with ports, docks, factories, mills, etc. Working at ArcelorMittal was a critical factor in that for me as well.”
He sees an encouraging trend towards industrialized design amongst his architectural colleagues and says many are becoming more confident in using these elements. While Spain remains fairly conservative in its architecture, particularly in the residential sector with a heavy weight of tradition, Sergio thinks there are still great opportunities for this type of industrialized design in other types of building where advanced technologies and optimized construction techniques are much more crucial.