The Hospital's Research Institute has been named the winner of the Innovation in Construction category of the seventeenth Catalonia Construction Awards, organised by the Association of Surveyors, Technical Architects and Building Engineers of Barcelona (CAATEEB). The building was designed by the architecture firms 2BMFG Arquitectes and PichArchitects, under the direction of Felipe Pich-Aguilera, professor at the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, having already won the prestigious ASCER Ceramics Awards just one year ago.

The jury valued "the project’s innovative proposals, such as changes to the functional layout, helping to make specialist researchers’ work more efficient by opening up shared workspaces and systems”. They also praised “the symbiosis achieved with the Hospital de Sant Pau’s patrimonial setting throughan original treatment of the industrialised ceramic fabric, as well as the innovative application of materials and construction techniques”. The building stands out for its ceramic façade created using the Flexbrick system, a patent developed by professor Vicenç Sarrablo, coordinator of the Laboratory for Technological Innovation in Industrialised and Sustainable Building Research Group (LITEIS), to which professor Felipe Pich-Aguilera also belongs.

The members of the jury for this year’s awards were Marcos Barjola, specialist architect and project execution director; Conxita Balcells, architect; Jan Dinarès, freelance specialist architect; Santiago Ayuso, specialist architect and safety coordinator; Elisabeth Magán, specialist architect and production manager for Maheco Constructora; David Garcia, Doctor of Architecture and structural consultant and Celestino Ventura, president of the CAATEEB and of the jury. 

Among the reference works awarded in other categories are the Celler Clos Pachem (Gratallops, Priorat), the Montjuïc Castle construction works (Barcelona), the Teatre l'Artesà (El Prat de Llobregat) and the new corporate headquarters of Doctors without Borders (Barcelona).