PAU illa Centre
El Masnou, Barcelona
The competition suggests a new social housing building with 64 units in El Masnou, a municipality on the coast near Barcelona. The location presents an urban character with a remarkable complexity.
Due to its considerate dimensions, the new building makes an important impact on the scale of the neighborhood, a much less densified environment. The problematics of the site are furthermore increased by the attached building, which generates a large dividing wall throughout the eastern side of the plot. According to urban regulations, this dividing wall cannot grow beyond the 3rd floor, having our building exceeding it on the upper levels.
The proposal responds to two very different realities. The result is a heterogeneous building, with a volume that gradually breaks up from the bottom up
In the lower levels (0/1/2/3) the building embraces the dividing wall at its ends and separates itself from the wall in the central space, creating an interior courtyard. This reality generates a linear building with housing units open to two ends and accessed through a walkway.
In the upper levels (4/5/6) the building rises above the dividing wall, having access to all possible orientations. This reality generates typologies of 4 units served by one core and smaller buildings open to every direction, favoring the solar capture in the courtyard and allowing the reduction of energetic demand.
The building is related to a permeable public space through various openings in the form of a porch, which allows access to the communication cores, the commercial space and the parking area. The upper floors lose mass, proposing a lighter volume, more in line with the scale of the environment.
The composition of the housing units is determined by flexibility and de-hierarchization. Solutions and typologies are standardized to achieve economic sustainability in accordance with social housing criteria. Another challenge of the project is to reach the NZEB building standards, applying mainly passive systems. Natural ventilation and lighting, solar protection and the green treatment of the courtyard and dividing walls are especially prioritized.
| Location | El Masnou, Barcelona |
| Year | Idea Competition 2019 |
| Surface | 8.602 m² |
| Budget | 8.171.900 € |
| Promoter | Impsol |
| Team | Elena Poropat, Jan Kudlicka, Francesco Ogliengo, architecture. |
Trinitat Vella Social Housing
Barcelona
The relationship with the environment and the neighborhood is a fundamental issue of the project, since the existing plot is quite penalized by topography and scarce sunlight. The aim is to take advantage of the topography to generate an urban concept at various scales.
A porch invites you to access the intervention through a little square located on the roof of the building, which becomes a privileged place situated above the public space. On a closer scale, the project recognizes the nuances given by each of the 3 orientations, generating accesses from the inner courtyard of the block. The exception is made in the 4th and the 5th floors of the north building, which are intended to address the problems of noise and orientation by entering the units through the facade.
The housing units have been designed using a diagonal distribution of the main rooms. This geometrical strategy intends to capture the maximum solar radiation during winter, while distinguishing the uses of living, dining and kitchen areas. Those have a double orientation that allows cross ventilation, ensuring that all units have enough sunlight. Each unit has two terraces, one in the living room and the other in the entrance, generating an intermediate space with movable panels that provide privacy, while functioning as a thermal and acoustic protection.
The real estate development consists of 2 and 3 bedrooms with a total of 60 housing units. Both types are based on the same system, facilitating the standardization of solutions to optimize costs and simplify the installations as much as possible.
| Location | Barcelona |
| Year | 1st Prize competition 2019 |
| Surface | 7.840 m² |
| Budget | 7.360.104 € |
| Promoter | IMHAB, Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona |
| Team | Co-author EAS Estudio Álvarez-Sala. Jorge Blasco, Lourdes García, Marc Torrellas Elena Poropat, Irene Gascón, architecture. Societat Orgànica, Sustainability design. Oriol Vidal, facilities engineering. Bernuz-Fernández, structure engineering. Coderch acoustic engineering. |