In 2009 M\u00e1laga City Council\u2019s municipal business development company commissioned us to turn it into a business incubator: a coworking space, company offices and support offices for new entrepreneurs. The basic and construction design was stamped by the College of Architects (visado<\/em>, COA M\u00e1laga) on 7 September 2009, file 2009\/004278. It was, in the studio\u2019s own words at the time, \u201cthe first project of any real size that we built\u201d: the practice had been set up just as the crisis hit, and our background was residential refurbishment.<\/p>\n The first decision was not to grow. The built area after the refurbishment is exactly the existing built area: the project extends nothing. All the effort goes into what actually changed, which is the use. Going from an audiovisual building not open to the public to a building open to the public (p\u00fablica concurrencia<\/em>) means redoing almost everything you cannot see: the electrical installation to the 2002 Low Voltage Electrotechnical Regulations (RBT<\/em>), heating and cooling to the CTE (Spanish Technical Building Code) and the RITE, fire safety to CTE DB-SI and M\u00e1laga\u2019s fire brigade by-law, and accessibility to Decree 72\/92 and the municipal by-law.<\/p>\n The shared workspace sits in the former stages: some 470 m\u00b2 according to the studio\u2019s project report, sized for more than fifty people working at the same time. Around it and above it are 24 company offices, two meeting rooms and a boardroom, four phone booths, a waiting area, a vending area, WCs on both floors and plant rooms, with the entrepreneur support offices on the first floor. The external walls were lined on the inside and new windows, set out to the grid of the existing structure, were opened in the old stage box. Outside, a topographic survey was carried out to re-plan the surface car park and gain more spaces.<\/p>\n The project\u2019s declared challenge was never about looks: it was getting more than fifty people to work together in one large, hard volume without interfering with each other. An empty television stage reverberates. Walls and ceilings were lined with sound-absorbing elements, and the company offices were enclosed with glass partitions up to the level of the suspended ceiling and, from the suspended ceiling to the slab above, dry partitioning with acoustic insulation.<\/p>\n That detail improved on site. The design had 2.30 m timber screens between offices; the client asked to replace them with floor-to-ceiling dry partitioning with acoustic insulation, which also allowed the services to be concealed in the walls and the ground-floor corridor to be widened. Inside the shared workspace the move went the other way: the partitions of the rooms set within the old stages were lowered to 2.10 m, so that the big room would still read as a single room. That preserved double height is what keeps the place feeling like a stage, and it is the best part of the project.<\/p>\n The setting-out record marking the start of works was signed on 30 April 2010, with Covalco Grupo Constructor as main contractor and David Gonz\u00e1lez Faura as health and safety coordinator during construction. The design allowed six months. The works were certified complete on 13 December 2010: about seven and a half months.<\/p>\n Everything that changed along the way was put in writing. Fire protection to the roof trusses went from intumescent paint to vermiculite render, with the architectural ceiling lowered below the trusses. The client replaced the specified heating and cooling system with a VRV system. The council\u2019s activity licensing department asked for a new lift compliant with current accessibility regulations, and it was installed where the old one had been. The retaining wall in the car park needed a bitumen emulsion and a drainage layer. And the floor finish was laid on a self-levelling mortar screed.<\/p>\n The final completion certificate records 1,353.67 m\u00b2, not the 1,544.59 m\u00b2 of the survey: the missing 190.92 m\u00b2 had already been certified earlier, in a partial completion certificate stamped on 28 September 2010. It is the kind of detail that never appears in any photograph and that decides whether the building opens or not. If you have an industrial building or a commercial unit you want to convert, let\u2019s talk at Klic Arquitectos<\/a>.<\/p>\nWithout adding a single square metre<\/h2>\n
Acoustics, the problem you cannot see<\/h2>\n
From site works to completion<\/h2>\n
Gallery<\/h2>\n
![\"PROM\u00c1LAGA](\"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1-7.jpg\")
![\"Main](\"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2-7.jpg\")
![\"Comparative](\"https:\/\/www.klicarquitectos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3-6.jpg\")
Project data<\/h2>\n
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Other commercial and office projects by Klic Arquitectos<\/h2>\n
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