The project developed by SAU Taller d´Arquitectura is arranged around a central concrete core, where the fixed elements, installations, wet areas and vertical connections are grouped. This core divides the house, separating the possible future homes and providing them with cross ventilation in a north-south direction.
The construction is developed with a wooden structure and dry construction to facilitate the transformation from one phase to the next. The roof, also made of wood, functions as a large ventilated air chamber that guarantees the regulation of solar radiation, thus protecting the building.
Passatge Bailen residential building(s) by SAU Taller d´Arquitectura. Photograph by Andrés Flajszer.
Project description by SAU Taller d´Arquitectura
On a plot between party walls with a 9-metre façade and 10 metres of buildable depth, the property poses the challenge of building a building that will initially be used as a single-family home, but which is intended to be transformed into 4 rental homes.
Urban planning regulations allow building a ground floor plus two upper floors. This means leaving the ground floor for parking and dividing each of the other floors into 2 homes.
To do so, all the facilities, wet areas and vertical connections (staircase and lift) are centralised in a central strip 2.4m wide with the dual objective of freeing up the façade as much as possible and guaranteeing natural north-south ventilation.
While in the final phase we have 2 homes with one room per landing, in the first phase a single home is planned where the bedrooms are on the first floor and the day area on the second floor. In this way it enjoys better views and privacy from neighbours.
The construction is conceived based on a central rigid concrete core, where the fixed elements are grouped: elevator, staircase, installation steps... And a wooden structure and dry construction to facilitate the transformation from one phase to the next.
The roof can be understood as an evolution of the traditional Catalan roof, but made of wood: a large ventilated air chamber that guarantees the regulation of solar radiation.
