Barcelona. 2007

This project is part of the exercises developed during the Master “Laboratorio de la Vivienda del Siglo XXI" at UPC. The proposal is located in a curved site, with a broad visual towards the north. The complex resumes the fragmented neighborhood language, along with the blocks present in the east and west sectors. The site presents a significant slope, which generated a zigzagging proposal on the façade to adapt the project and avoid soil movements as much as possible.
Diagrams were made to analyze the density of the project on the site. The assigned area could be entirely built according to local policy, but because of view, topography, climate and contextual reasons, the idea of stripes located strategically in the north-south direction, is chosen.
The “mirror” stripes generate a pedestrian path (“ramblas”), which allows a neighborhood experience. This disposition favors the ventilation inside the living units, since all the facades have wide windows towards exterior places. The project is permeable, with a high level of natural illumination and with a scale that tries not to attack the surroundings with its height and fragmentation. Views towards the east and west are exploited through hallways and observation decks, intended to generate shadow to lateral facades.

The 24 living units that make up the complex are treated as “suggestive boxes” of human activity, connected by stairways and hallways that remind of vertical circulation ducts present in the zone. The dimensions in plan are 4m x 8m, increasable in the longer side to up to 10m. These “habitable boxes” divide in two, having one part elevated half height, to achieve a new spatial relation regarding the regular one-floor houses. These two pieces can be divided into two unipersonal units of 30m2 each. The living modules are units of 60m2 that can grow up to 75m2. In addition, Ignacio Paricio’s idea of considering the house as a space of open plan that can be adapted in time, is contemplated.