The programme, comprised of protected, affordable and mixed social housing, requires the available volume to be almost completely filled. This limitation alonside the self-imposed requirements of efficiency and simplicity, poses a challenge in building a project with some added value. An investigation was carried out to find the hidden potential of a proposal that is pragmatic but also sensitive to subtle external stimuli.
A 12 housing units floor plan is drawn that uses up the limited connection space by introducing a trough-vestibule with a single central core containing two intertwined stairs, two elevators and two installation cores. This leaves us with a single through-vestibule and a single service core on the ground floor affecting the clarity of the retail space and the underground parking garage.
With regard to the dwellings, the living rooms and bedrooms are outward-facing, while the kitchens, bathrooms and hallways face the walkways shared by each group of three neighbours. From this layout, which solidifies the available volume, subtraction operations are performed that wittle away the volume to generate a new morphology with generous collective and individual terraces, facilitating cross ventilation and diagonal views by lightening the original density and orienting the building towards its most attractive landscapes.
The exterior facades are repetitive, clad in industrial ventilated panels. They feature large groupes of windows with an accentuated horizontal dimension that simplify the appearence of the building (fortunately surrounded by públic space) and give it a certain monumental quality. Colour is an important ingredient of this distinctive silhouette, with a playful range of green hues that respond to the possibilities of the surroundings.
The facades of the patios and walkways are in very bright and luminous colours, combining two similar hues to create a vibrancy that enhances their joyfulness. The materials employed give it an almmost picturesque quality though the use of lattice, tiles and floorings that create a herringbone patern widely seen in the Mediterranean tradition.
Inside the dwellings, the joinery enhances a desired "balcony" effect that significantly expands the interior space.
