The restoration and adaptation of the pavilion on the Sant Pau Art Nouveau site has enabled the United Nations University Institute to establish its headquarters in Catalonia.
Refurbished Art Nouveau pavilion is new home to UN body
- 10 April 2014
We are pleased to be housed in the recently-refurbished Sant Manuel Pavilion. The office space is more than adequate for our current needs and offers visitors the opportunity of witnessing our work within this splendid World Heritage site.
The Sant Manuel Pavilion was built between 1922 and 1925 and is located on the Sant Pau Art Nouveau site, one of Europe´s most spectacular examples of Art Nouveau architecture and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Prior to 2009 when the restoration work began, it was the location of the Santa Creu i Sant Pau Hospital.
The Pavilion, covering a total area of 2 563 m2, is one of the largest and most important buildings of the site and was designed by the Catalan architecht, Pere Domènech i Roura.
Restoring the pavilion
Before the restoration started, teams cleaned and treated the building´s iron structure, which had deteriorated badly over time. All three levels were built with large apertures to make the most of natural light and to properly ventilate what were once the hospital wards.
The aim of the restoration was to highlight Sant Manuel´s artistic value, most visible in the facade. Inside, the upper floors recovered ceramics with plant motifs used to decorate them shortly after they were built.
Also of note is the beauty of the three day rooms, located beneath the dome, which are characteristic of the art nouveau style. They are now meeting rooms, from which one has unbeatable panoramic views of the Domenech i Montaner site.
In addition to recovering the original artistic and architectural elements of the pavilion, steps were also taken to adapt the space and infrastructure to make it fit for its new purpose, including innovative measures to reduce energy costs.
New home for the international institutions
The aim of the Private Foundation of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau was to refurbish the Pavilion so that it could host the United Nations University Institute on Globalisation, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM). This is an independent body of the United Nations which carries out postgraduate research and education.
Sant Manuel now provides a contemporary three-storey space, with significant cultural heritage, comprising of offices, meeting rooms and different facilities for researchers and seminars. As a result of the restoration project, the UNU has created about 10 jobs on the site, a number which is expected to double.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “Restoration and consolidation of the Sant Manuel pavilion as location for the UNU-IIAOC Institute1” is EUR 6 804 926 with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 3 402 463 through the “Protection and conservation of cultural heritage” priority of the Operational Programme “Cataluña” for the programming period 2007-2013.
[1] The FPHSCSP initiated negotiations with the United Nations University (UNU) and the governments of Catalonia and Spain in 2008. At that time, the name proposed for the UNU Institute at Sant Pau was “International Institute of the United Nations University for the Alliance of Civilizations (UNU-IIAOC)”. For this reason, all legal documents, internal reports and press reports published between 2008