The increase in population, the lack of space and the need to reduce the carbon footprint have turned the focus towards one of the most successful models of living in society: collective housing. Now that, in contrast to the speculative model of the 19th century, exemplified by Karel Teige, we have been able to establish minimum guidelines for building grouped housing (sunny, ventilated, services and facilities), where dense, compact and complex housing is once again an attractive solution and much more interesting than the isolated and dispersed housing model.
In this situation, it is necessary to highlight the proposals of Spanish architects who have been able to provide an integrative response to the territory they occupy, from constructive experimentation and the materials used to dialogue with the society to which they respond, creating structures with a capacity for resilience and innovation.
A sustainable approach is supported in the technique shown in collective housing examples that serve as a reference, both for the use of materials with low environmental impact and local origin, as well as strategies with flexible programs capable of promoting energy savings. A sustainable approach, arose from the will to change, generating progress and including different scales that generated a community in which citizens feel supported in the face of possible segregation or isolation. Models that facilitate urban connection as opposed to models of dispersed peripheries, understanding spaces from a collective, friendly and conscious perspective that give rise to interesting examples that generate accessible, innovative and low-emission housing.
The ten examples collected here (a first delivery) are just a small sample of how to approach different solutions to the same idea, that of facing collective housing as the only efficient and environmentally friendly social solution, which values the environment in which they are located and the way of living collectively.
From METALOCUS we have selected 10 social housing projects in Spain that illustrate how different studios approach residential projects in many cities throughout Spain from a sustainable perspective adapted to their environment, with examples of projects designed by MIAS Architects, Coll-Leclerc Arquitectos, Arquitectura Produccions, Pau Vidal, Vivas Arquitectos, MAIO Architects, Llps arquitectos, Harquitectes, TAAs, Lacol Arquitectura Cooperativa, Bosch.Capdeferro Arquitectura, dataAE, Xavier Vendrell Estudio, NARCH, Maira Arquitectes.
This housing complex, designed in collaboration by MIAS Architects + Coll-Leclerc Arquitectos, is located on a triangular plot between the streets Ulldecona - Cal Cisó - Pontils in the La Marina del Prat Vermell neighbourhood, a characteristic textile colony created in Barcelona behind the Montjuic mountain in the mid-19th century.
The formalisation of the project avoids the creation of a continuous 92-metre façade and offers an interesting play of volumes that is sensitive to its surroundings, since through this strategy it ensures that all the homes have at least the two hours of sun exposure required by regulations.
The entire construction process complies with sustainability criteria, seeking to minimise the building's carbon footprint, with special attention to all construction details.
The team formed by the architectural studios Arquitectura Produccions, Pau Vidal and Vivas Arquitectos were commissioned to design this public housing building for the elderly and temporary accommodation for people at risk of social exclusion. The building is located in a unique block in the Eixample district of Barcelona.
The building is made up of two separate blocks that house a large communications courtyard inside, which serves as a green lung for the complex. All the housing for the elderly has a double orientation, and access to them is via walkways arranged around the central courtyard. Inside, there are a series of oblique views from the kitchen to the living room and bedroom with the aim of expanding the spatial sensation of the users, which is also sought with the terraces and their way of expanding the living room to the outside.
3. Deciding in community. La Borda, cooperative housing by Lacol Arquitectura Cooperativa
The project La Borda, developed by Lacol Arquitectura Cooperativa, consists of a block of social housing that was born out of the collective need for community recovery of Can Batlló. In 2012, it emerged from a neighbourhood initiative that raised the importance of access to housing and proposed the implementation of a housing cooperative for use.
The project involves the intervention of Can Batlló, or the Joan Batlló Factory, an old industrial complex made up of the facilities used for the textile factory created in 1878 by Joan Batlló i Barrera and located near the square known as Plaça Cerdà, south of Barcelona, Spain.
4. Sustainability with cross laminated wood. 6x6 block by Bosch.Capdeferro Arquitectura
The architectural studio Bosch.Capdeferro Arquitectura built a 6x6 block of 35 homes in a Girona neighbourhood, using a construction system based on laminated wood panels whose organisation guarantees different passive air conditioning systems, favouring energy reduction.
This project is based on compliance with the flexibility criteria of the housing programme through the versatility and adaptability of the different interior spaces and the programme, with a significant reduction in the carbon footprint generated throughout the building's useful life, compared to other construction processes in similar buildings.
5. A façade designed horizontally. 85 high-rise social housing by Llps architects
The architectural studio Llps arquitectos has designed a building with 85 social housing units in Mendez Alvaro, in the Delicias neighbourhood. The building, wedged between party walls, has a north façade characterised by an orderly and exponential multiplication of square spaces that respond to the scale of its bedrooms.
On the south façade, a complex system of setbacks and depths is developed with a system of ceramic lattices that allows the daytime programme of the dwellings to be protected from the sun and heat in summer. It is understood as if it were a system of vertical streets that run diagonally and in a staggered fashion through the proposal, seeking that place of encounter and relationship between neighbours.
6. Environment adapted to a privileged space. Social housing 1737 by Harquitectes
The Harquitectes architectural studio designed several social housing buildings on a plot with a privileged setting, located in Gavá, a small coastal municipality between the Garraf massif and the Llobregat delta, in the province of Barcelona.
The project adapts to the slope of the plot and allows the creation of landscaped spaces around it, reducing the process of anthropization. The buildings are generated through an aggregation system creating large open access corridors and terraces running along the entire façade. The interior spaces are surrounded by transition spaces towards the outside, making all the homes have cross ventilation.
7. The welfare of the periphery. Carabanchel collective housing by TAAs
The Totem architects associated studio has designed 159 social housing units in the Madrid neighbourhood of Carabanchel. The building is located next to large urban voids that counteract the urban heat island effect generated in large cities in summer.
The building has interior public spaces that promote ventilation and lighting through nozzles, interior streets and condensers. The building materials used are inspired by the caliches, sandstones and limestones of the moors of the Tajo basin in the south of Madrid, creating a monolithic and massive building with greyish tones.
8. 39 Viviendas Sociales Turó del Sastre. MONTGAT por dataAE + Xavier Vendrell Estudio
The building of 39 social housing units in the municipality of Montgat in Barcelona was developed by dataAE + Xavier Vendrell Studio in collaboration, to create a public housing building located in a rich natural environment.
Taking advantage of the peri-urban condition of the site, the project is configured in fragments following the most optimal orientation for its facades, and adapting to the unevenness of the terrain, minimizing the foundation thanks to an upper building with a cantilever.
9. 47 viviendas VPO en la Escolapi Càncer por dataAE + NARCH + Maira Arquitectes
The architectural studios dataAE, NARCH and Maira Arquitectes carried out a project for the Municipal Institute of Housing and Rehabilitation of Barcelona (Imhab) in the Barcelona neighbourhood of Torre Baró, next to the Parc de Collserola, of 47 social housing units.
The project is created by forming a ring of housing units around an active central courtyard that functions as a crossing and access space for neighbours and acts as a thermal manager for the building, and above it there are six floors above ground level and one basement.
10. Flexibility, integration and sustainability. 40 Social Housing units building by MAIO Architects
In the municipality of San Felíu de Llobregat, located on the outskirts of Barcelona, the architecture studio MAIO Architects designed a building with 40 social rental units that creates a connection with its surroundings and provides connectivity and integration through a central courtyard.
The central courtyard captures heat and helps regulate the temperature thanks to the natural chimney effect. The façade incorporates a light structure that allows for the installation of a solar protection system. The apartment building responds to sustainability challenges by including climate strategies such as aerothermal energy, or by using economical materials, giving priority to dry construction and pre-assembly.
