The appearance of the façades is characterised by a higher proportion of empty spaces than full ones. A reduction in the width of the windows is prioritised, giving a sensation of greater verticality and providing the opportunity to establish a unified window leaf. This compositional decision was taken with the intention of breaking with the modernist appearance that characterises the façades of Barcelona and the surrounding area.
Description of project by CRÜ
Located in Collblanc, a neighbourhood with a working-class memory and in buoyant effervescence in Hospitalet de Llobregat, La Rocio stands on an irregular plot between party walls located on a pedestrian street on the outskirts of the borrow, in the invisible boundary where Barcelona and Hospitalet merge.
The floor plan has perfectly square proportions (13.5 x 13.5 metres) as the result of literally applying the building depth allowed by the municipal planning regulations. With the defined perimeter and an assignment that required the fitting of 6 apartments in a maximum regulatory height of ground floor + 2, the math concluded in the insertion of 2 pass-through apartments per floor with a staircase placed perpendicular to the rear façade as an intermediate piece.
The placement of the vertical core in this interstitial position solved several classic problems of multi-family buildings: the night areas from both apartments are moved away, generating an air cavity between them and thus reducing noise pollution; and on the other hand, to give access to each apartment through a central point on the floor, avoiding marathonic circulations to reach all the rooms of the apartment.
Inside, only a 3 x 4.5 meter free-standing box is inserted, and fragmented transversely by two opposing gaps that give access to its interior from the lateral corridors. At a programmatic level, the box solves all the needs of a dwelling: it is placed on the floorplan in such a way that it clearly zones the day and night areas; and assumes the entire services program required in a home: kitchen, facilities, bathroom and storage.
The two facades are conceived as an intrepid and unapologetic review of the modernist façade that constitutes the vertical plane of Barcelona and its urban surroundings. The modernist canons are deformed in a width of the void greater than the solid, in a ratio of 1 is to ½. In addition, the classic width of the void is reduced to achieve a more vertical proportion of the opening, capable of being closed with single-leaf carpentry. A Mediterranean blue evenly stains the surface. The blue on the front façade recedes slightly in section and a whole floor in elevation in order to avoid contact with the street and to make room for a coarse plinth of hardened mortar.
This dark cobalt blue is also transferred inside to materialize the entrails of the box (its bathroom) and the false ceiling crowning it, aiming to obtain a continuous and total reading from the outside to the inside and vice versa. The flooring is finished with a traditional 40 x 40 cm terrazzo that homogeneously covers the floor. The last layer is some traditional blinds –also reversed– that act as lashes for the façade openings, drawing a subtle but constant dance with their flight.
