When there is nothing left to remove. 8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero
19/11/2019.
[Granada] Spain
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
This 8-dwelling building, designed by architect Elisa Valero Ramos, is located in the Jewish quarter, named Realejo, one of the oldest in Granada, at the end of a small alley that ends in stairs, like many others on the west side of Mauror Hill.
The surrounding landscape is framed in the upper part by the Bermejas towers of the Alhambra and Carmen Blanco, and at its feet by the Plaza del Campo del Príncipe.
The surrounding landscape is framed in the upper part by the Bermejas towers of the Alhambra and Carmen Blanco, and at its feet by the Plaza del Campo del Príncipe.
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero. Photograph by Fernando Alda
Site plan. 8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero.
-1 and 0 level plan. 8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero.
+1 and +2 level plan. 8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero.
Sections. 8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero.
Elevations. 8 experimental homes in El Realejo by Elisa Valero.
The slope, in which the building is located, makes the interior garden on a lower floor than the access one and that from the ground floor you can see a view of the Sierra Nevada and the city.
Outside the facade is a white cloth with different types of perforations. Inside, the concrete walls, designed to not need pillars, are shown nake, a space waiting for its inhabitants to turn it into place.
Outside the facade is a white cloth with different types of perforations. Inside, the concrete walls, designed to not need pillars, are shown nake, a space waiting for its inhabitants to turn it into place.
Project description by Elisa Valero Ramos
This work is situated at the end of a small street that finishes in stairs, like many others on the west slope of the Mauror hill. In the upper part is limited with Bermejas towers and Carmen Blanco, and in the lower part with the square Campo de Principe. The whole complex shaped is the neighborhood of Jewish origin, called Realejo, one of the oldest in the city of Granada. The neighborhood is characterized by strongly accented topography, with up to 14 meters of denivelation inside the blocks, which allows the houses of the neighborhood to cling to the Vega de Granada and the Sierra Nevada.
As a result of an experimental project, eight apartments are built for a neighbors' cooperative around a garden, whose wisteria and virgin vine unite with the adjoining gardens, climbing the adobe and brick wall that separates them.
The pavement is perforated with small holes in regular pattern, so that the rainwater goes back to the ground. In some points, the holes change the size to allow planting smaller trees or plants. Because of the slope of the hillside, the garden is at a lower level than the pedestrian access, so the houses on the ground floor have views of the Sierra Nevada or the city's domes.
These eight apartments are all different, tailored to the needs of the cooperatives. For the construction, it has been used an innovative system of structural element of double wall, ELESDOPA, recently patented by a professor engineer of the University of Granada. With this concrete system, the vertical and horizontal walls are both structure and enclosure, with the thermal insulation in the interior, which allows to eliminate the finishing works. That means a substantial reduction of the costs of execution of the work.
The walls, floors and ceilings are all in exposed concrete. By designing following principles of bioclimatization, energy costs are also reduced and the building is of almost zero energy, because of the great continuous insulation and adequate orientations. The system has also made it possible to eliminate the pillars and give full continuity between the garden and the parking area under the building, which is facilitating for not very experienced drivers. For the same reason, the box of the stairs has been rounded.
The exterior of the building conforms to the requirements and regulations of the historic center of Granada. It is manifested through a continuous white wall without other adornment than the windows, all the same, following the typology of the neighborhood, with no other pretension than to integrate in the place. Inside the garden on the south-east and south-west facades, the windows alternate with other larger glazed openings.
More information
Architects
Collaborators
Leonardo Tapiz Buzarra, achitect. Isabel Álvarez López, quantity surveyor. Manuel Rojas Fernández-Fígares Rojas y Francisco Vílchez Cuesta, engineers.
Developer
Sociedad Cooperativa Andaluza Huerto de San Cecilio
Builder
El Partal S.A.U.
Venue
C/ Huerto de San Cecilio, 5. Granada, Spain
Dates
March, 2016
Budget
€545,854. Cost 524.86 €/m²
Area
Built area.- 1,040 m²
Photography
ELISA VALERO. Elisa Valero architecture
Elisa Valero Ramos born in Ciudad Real (Spain) in 1971. She is graduated from the ETSA (Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura) Valladolid in 1996. She completed her PhD at the ETSA Granada in 2000 and won a scholarship from the Real Academia de España in Rome in 2003. She is the author of five monographies, has worked as reviewer and lecturer and was invited by numerous architecture schools in Europe and by the UNAM in Mexico City. She is currently Professor of Architectural Design at the ETSA Granada.
This is how Elisa Valero describes her work: "At a moment in our culture when noise is enormously dense I have chosen an architecture that acts in silence, serenely and without drawing attention to itself. […] I am interested in living space, landscape, sustainability, precision and an economy of expressive resources. I am not interested in styles. I am more interested in books than in magazines, in consistency than in genius, coherency than artistic composition. And I understand originality as the rediscovery of the true meaning of things. I am interested in architecture rooted in the earth and in its own time. I accept the determinants of architecture as the rules of a very serious and enjoyable game and I try to play it in a coherent, rigorous way. While it is no longer stylish to speak of serving, I believe that an architect’s work is a quintessential service intended to make people’s lives more agreeable—a noble calling that seeks to make the world more beautiful and more human and to make society fairer. Architecture is no place for the nostalgic, it is a job for rebels”.
This is how Elisa Valero describes her work: "At a moment in our culture when noise is enormously dense I have chosen an architecture that acts in silence, serenely and without drawing attention to itself. […] I am interested in living space, landscape, sustainability, precision and an economy of expressive resources. I am not interested in styles. I am more interested in books than in magazines, in consistency than in genius, coherency than artistic composition. And I understand originality as the rediscovery of the true meaning of things. I am interested in architecture rooted in the earth and in its own time. I accept the determinants of architecture as the rules of a very serious and enjoyable game and I try to play it in a coherent, rigorous way. While it is no longer stylish to speak of serving, I believe that an architect’s work is a quintessential service intended to make people’s lives more agreeable—a noble calling that seeks to make the world more beautiful and more human and to make society fairer. Architecture is no place for the nostalgic, it is a job for rebels”.
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