CONVERSATION WITH THE WOMEN WHO MAKE UP THE ENERO ARQUITECTURA TEAM, A LOOK AT THE CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE

In celebration of Women’s Day 2024, the women of the ENERO Arquitectura team met, both in person and online, to talk about the challenges and new projects that the studio is currently facing. The studio continues to work on achieving a new paradigm for healthcare architecture and is looking out for ways to integrate innovation in its projects in areas like industrialisation, or new tools for design processes.

Lluc Gómez, Project Director at ENERO Arquitectura, summarises the studio’s areas of specialisation and the challenges in innovation for future projects and those underway, “At ENERO Arquitectura, we focus on three lines of business where we specialise: healthcare architecture, focused on the humanisation of spaces; involvement in historical heritage sites; and biosecurity installations”.

This continuous updating has also allowed the ENERO Arquitectura team to implement a hybrid working model. Our working model and the platforms we work with allow us greater flexibility and efficiency in all phases of the project. This methodology facilitates coordination between the different departments. Gemma Fernández comments, “There is a great deal of teamwork, as each piece of the puzzle that is ENERO Arquitectura is essential and necessary. Our working model allows for optimal internal communication”. This conversation between the women who make up ENERO Arquitectura is an example of our hybrid working model, as it has been carried out both in person in the studio and online.

ENERO Arquitectura also stands out for being made up of a team where parity is a priority. The team is now made up of more women than men, and both benefit from the work-life balance that the hybrid work format allows.

INNOVATIVE PROJECTS BRINGING TOGETHER TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANISATION

The women of the ENERO Arquitectura team discuss the challenges of the future, both in person at the studio and online.

One of the greatest challenges facing ENERO Arquitectura is explicitly matching technology and innovation through industrialisation without losing sight of the humanisation of spaces. For Fabiana Ceide, who heads Business Development and Communication, “Healthcare architecture must demonstrate efficient processes, and at the same time, design spaces that provide well-being for users”.

Tania González exemplifies this care for humanising spaces while designing efficient processes at the Collado Villalba General University Hospital, “The care we have taken for accessing the centre, having a functional entrance and communication between units because of the work done with natural light, enables us to humanise healthcare architecture”. For Paloma Yali Lei, “The sensory perception we have of spaces can become another element of patient care”.

Patients are not the only protagonists of healthcare architecture. “We create projects not only for patients, but also for healthcare staff and relatives,” says Clara Parralejo. Part of the humanisation of spaces is to highlight the daily lives of the healthcare staff who work in them. “One of the most differentiating proposals in the healthcare architecture we design is the introduction of natural light. At Ruber International Masó Medical Centre, outside vegetation can be seen from the operating theatres through large windows. We see how the introduction of these elements has a positive impact,” says Ana Armero. “Studies have shown that having contact with the outdoors helps not only to reduce patients’ anxiety during the procedures they may need, but also improves the precision of the healthcare staff’s performance”.

ENERO Arquitectura’s team includes Rosa García, a technical architect with a long career involved in interventions at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital. In these interventions the ENERO Arquitectura team was able to apply fundamental conditions for the humanisation of the spaces. For architect Marta Rodríguez, “The Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital became a functional hospital because of the use of materials, which allowed us to give the spaces a more human dimension”.

At ENERO Arquitectura, we know the importance of materials when it comes to humanising the spaces that we work with. María José Nava, technical architect, comments on how “the refurbishment carried out at the Clínic Hospital focused on using innovative materials with the highest performance and quality”.

As Carolina López, Project Director of the Barcelona office, points out, “We must also not forget to be empathetic as architects and integrate all the innovations with sensitivity”.

HISTORICAL HERITAGE PROJECTS FROM AN INTEGRATIVE, HISTORY-REFLECTIVE VIEW

Projects focused on intervention in existing historical heritage sites are also one of the pillars of ENERO Arquitectura. Among these projects, Cristina Catalá highlights the studio’s activity at the Parador in Ciudad Rodrigo, “In this project, the building was treated with great respect, safeguarding its identity and enhancing its comfort and functionality.”

None of these projects could be done without innovation, which, as Claudia Aguiló says, “begins with a mindset at the studio level, becoming a differentiating factor from others”.

This innovation starts from the very first moment of ENERO Arquitectura’s internal processes when carrying out each of the projects. “Innovating is being able to work and adopt tools and methods at all levels,” says Cynthia Navarro.

SPECIALISATION IN THE DESIGN OF BIOSAFETY FACILITIES

Architecture has much to contribute to the design of biosafety facilities in laboratories and research centres. Some of the studio’s architects, such as Laura Castaño, work on this type of project, “In our latest project for a Biological Containment Level 3 Animal Facility, we implemented cutting-edge technologies such as state-of-the-art air filtration systems and designs that minimise the risk of cross-contamination”.

One of the keys in biosafety projects, as in all other projects, is multidisciplinary coordination and collaboration. This type of project requires not only specialists in the field of biocontainment facilities but also a greater role for the BIM Managers we have at ENERO Arquitectura.

AUGMENTED REALITY AND HEALTH SPACES

The relationship of healthcare architecture with augmented reality is still uncharted territory. Virtual reality simulation is starting to be implemented in the design of operating theatres in order to be able to show these spaces to surgeons. For Patricia Chillón, “Augmented reality is still developing and is a design tool that we will have to integrate as architects in the near future”.

New technologies are having a major impact on the design of healthcare spaces. The ability to communicate remotely has changed consultation spaces, making it possible for a doctor to see a patient from the comfort of an armchair via a video call.

Augmented reality also enables the automatic improvement not only of different processes, but also of the design tools that are used when designing. BIM methodology, space utilisation, and new technologies are intrinsically connected.