Barcelona Meeting Point

Luís Alonso, architect, since 1978 and together with Sergio Balaguer is a Founding Partner of Alonso, Balaguer y Arquitectos Asociados. Nowadays the office’s staff is composed by more than 65 people, 35 of which are architects. In 1999 Alonso and Balaguer became partners with Ricard Rogers and opened a new office in Barcelona.

Alonso’s and Balaguer’s link to sports since their youth (especially in athletics; nowadays they are Marathons runners) has led them to their specialization in Sportive Architecture. Thus, they own 23 sportive clubs and spas throughout Spain and Latin America and more than 20 that are being built which combine sport, health and thermal concepts. There are many business chains as O2 Wellness Centres, Duet Sports, Arsenal, Europolis, Holmes Place, Metropolitan…

Their work has deserved 5 selected Works in the prestigious awards FAD of Architecture, the 1sr Rehabitec Award for the best restoration in Spain and the Quantium award to the most innovative work in Catalonia.

As emblematic buildings we can list the Hotel Hesperia Tower skyscraper in Barcelona, the Wellness Centre O2, the Centro Internacional de Medicina Avanzada, the Arsenal sports club, La Illa del Cel in Diagonal Mar, all these in Barcelona, which is compound of 2 housing skyscrapers, the Hotel Vincci Marítimo, the Hotel Arcs de Monells in the Catalan region of Empordà, the Balthus Centre in Santiago de Chile and more than 5.000 homes built around Spain.

Nowadays, they have developed 4 new skyscrapers in Barcelona’s surrounding area in the Plaza Europa in the Gran Vía and also a Masterplan for the building of 4 skyscrapers in the soil of the old Repsol in Málaga and a new city for 15.000 citizens in the Spanish region of Granada.

The approach to sustainable architecture solutions and to the environmental protection led them to build the first residential building exposed as an example for the sector of 240 houses for youngsters in the Nudo de la Trinidad promoted by the Patronato Municipal de la Vivienda.

The new headquarter of the Board of Directors of SEAT in Martorell and the new business centre in Viladecans with more than 100.000 m2 of offices in construction will be their new architectonical references together with the 2 constructions that are being done in collaboration with Richard Rogers Partnership: the new Recreational Centre and of the old bullring Arenas de Barcelona and the new wine cellar Protos in Ribera del Duero, Peñafiel, Valladolid.

In 2005 the company opened a new office in Madrid for attending the growing number of assignments around Spain in this year they are looking for to opening another one in Granada.