The project, by Amann, Canovas and Maruri, arises from descontextualized urban context and from the conditions of the urban planning. A geometrical submission emphasizes the hybrid image and complex typology of these towers. The galleries, the gateway, common area and access on the middle floor are configured as an intermediate space between the housing and contact with the hybrid complex and the city.
Located in a recently redeveloped area in the industrial town of Coslada, close to Madrid, the project is born of the arrangement between different uses and different height levels: underground parking, offices and commercial uses from the public ground floor to the public raised space on the third floor platform, and from this level residential spaces: it is a hybrid building in the periphery.
It was promoted by the local government in order to cover the lack of low cost housing in the city. The whole of the 20.000 m² to build with an inversion of 8.700.000 euros was designed according to a specific demand for young people, where the 70% of the totality of 118 units would be appointed for rent, keeping thirty five dwellings for sale.
The project aims to offer an attractive urban proposal farther than the mere accumulation of residential units. The decision to divide the volume in four towers around a public raised space that works as a cover for the entrances and commercials in the public ground space turns the building into an urban visible joint that connects different areas in the city.
The low square is connected to the high public space by an elevator and a hung metallic stair. The high plaza, elevated ten meters, communicates the four towers and separates the diverse uses, becoming definitely the heart of the project. As a meeting point space, it assumes its condition, once equipped, as sensitive leisure place for collective socialization, changing into an open community new service for the city.
The housing complex consists in 40m² apartments and 60m² two bedroom dwellings. The interior space of the apartments conceived as a continuous space that can be modified with large sliding doors, are enlarged with a 7m2 protected terraces thought for permanent use. The apartment’s space is separated from outdoors by a thick linear storage set and from the noise of common corridors, with the mechanical rooms.
The set is constructed with a reinforced concrete structure, covered with a steel sheet skin that is finished in shades of gray, working as a ventilated façade that change from opaque finish to perforated finish.