1 Dwellings in Paris by Druot and Lacaton & Vassal II.
...The existing structures are preserved, the bays are opened, the prefabricated balconies of three depth meters are piled up and juxtaposed with the existing frontages, the interiors are adapted to the rental needs, the consumption of energies is reduced at least of 50%, in particular thanks to the passive energy management of the winter-gardens. The basic calculation of the rents is preserved. The surface of the winter-gardens is near 25m² for each 42m² of existing housing...
2 Multi-family residential building.
...A volume created by the urban needs arising from the emergence of a new promenade, the change in section of the road. In a temporary space somewhere between what was and what is wanted. With all this, the building appears as an urban element at city level, responding to more than just the particular needs of the condominium complex...
3 Restoring Mies van der Rohe: 860-880 Lake Shore Drive.
...Widely recognized as one of the 20th Century’s most iconic residential projects, 860-880 Lake Shore Drive consists of two 26-story rectangular condominium buildings surrounded by an irregularly shaped travertine plaza. The steel and glass towers are connected by a covered walkway.
In addition to more than half a century of normal wear and tear, the buildings had endured several restoration attempts over the years. The problems included corrosion of the building’s exposed steel frame, failure of the lobby glazing system and extensive cracking and discoloration of the travertine plaza...
4 32 Social Housing Units in San Vicente del Raspeig.
The urban proposal consisted of two parallel blocks connected by communication spaces. The receptivity of the city council and its architects enabled to rethink the planning of the blocks on the site.
The first decision was to slide the blocks, so that new permeabilities appeared and the building's are of influence increased. The space between the blocks, a square and covered streets, accommodates the circulations in the building.
5 Court Housing by architecten|en|en.
The project was initiated as part of a masterplan by Dutch firm MVRDV to propose housing for 35 different sites within the city limits. Eindhoven studios "architecten|en|en" and "diederendirrix" teamed up to plan one of the sites, which is located on a former sports field. While diederendirrix designed an apartment building for the northern boundary of the site, architecten|en|en planned a series of four urban blocks, each comprising approximately 25 row houses.
...The Studio Building was completed in 1926. It is also called "Prellerhaus", referring to the Studio Building at Bauhaus Weimar, which was named after Friedrich Preller. Back then, the 28 studio flats with about 24 squaremeters were let to junior masters and promising students. Inhabitants were Josef Albers, Erich Consemüller, Herbert Bayer, Franz Ehrlich, Walter Peterhans, Hannes Meyer, Joost Schmidt or Marcel Breuer. Not to mention the female residents form the first, so-called "ladies floor": Gertrud Arndt, Marianne Brandt, Gunta Stölzl or Anni Albers...
7 9 flats renovation in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona.
...In a residential building, located in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, the installation of an elevator allows easy renewal of existing floors. Cleaning the floors is accompanied with attention to what is found.
Scratching the walls are overlapping colors of the decoration of the many generations who passed through here. Recover those colors and ceramic tiles floors, wooden beams and reintegrating them into the newrehabilitation...
8 Collective housing in Torre Baró.
...Architecturally, the U-shaped project has different levels and it is circumscribed in a trapezoidal basis. It faces the eucalyptus square, so the diaphanous ground floor is an extension of the public space. However, the limit with Sant Feliu de Codines Street is defined by a 31-metre-tall façade, which clearly separates public and private space...
9 80 social housing in Salou by Toni Gironès.
From a contest for the design of 80 social housing within a really gridded and inflexible urban mesh, this building is projected to seek a reflexion about the intermediate spaces and the transitions, in a context where the urban development is characterized by a fast construction and its impermeability, with no relationship with the surrounding area. This interesting reflexion carries out a closer and engaged architecture with the direct user.
Assuming that the city is a complex body, we superimposed elements found on site: townhouses at the base, a housing block from the 1950's in the middle, and on the roof, single family homes. We organized them as archetypes to be read from bottom to top. The complexity of this project lies in the vertical superposition of these structural elements, shifting the three typologies independently.
