Interfacing

2003

Interfacing natural (system) and urban (system)
City planning takes place in the interaction between natural systems and designed urban systems.
Increasing mobility needs lead to the development of new "kernels" (centers) based not so much on geographical terms anymore but on connectivity terms.
The urban void, surrounded by social housing (1950) and the monument protected “Colonia Guell” (1890) becomes one of these new kernels in the Barcelona periphery: a new subway line will soon reinforce the actual train connection. The presence of a small river makes the topography of the site very complex.
- step 1: an important wall protects the complex from flood. Project gives back the stream “natural” spatial conditions by designing a landscape element giving a new direction and more space to the river. The proposal simultaneously breaks the wall down and opens the Colonia to the future park.
- step2: city takes place on the site respecting environment. Urban system developed creates strong links between communities around the park and to the new transportation node.

2005-2008

Just as the jury decision was announced, the team learned that the project couldn’t be developed on the site. The client, the Catalan Government, looked for another public housing project that could be developed over a shorter period. However, the winning team split up and only two of them signed the new commission, which included a project for a specific modification of the urban plan on the new site. The project to harmonise a periurban development with a natural area in the Barcelona suburbs became in the course of events a project for 52 social housing units in Lleida, a mid-size town north-west of the Catalan capital. Could the underlying question – finding convergence between natural and urban environments – re-emerge on this irregular plot where a programme of significant density was required?
The convergence of environments is reflected at the architectural scale through a project which seeks high environmental quality within given contextual and economic parameters. Human beings are part of nature, and housing is part of our biotope.

2008-2010

Human beings are part of nature, and housing is part of our biotope.
The project expresses this idea by fragmenting the building volume into three elements, in order to optimise natural light and ventilation in each of the 52 apartments. The quest for better exposure in the main rooms and the need to adapt to the uneven shape of the plot were behind the composite solution adopted.
In total, it is 18 3-room housing units (70sqm) and 43 2-room housing units (50sqm). All the typologies have the kitchen and living room on the principal facade and the bedrooms are facing the courtyard. The bathrooms are always situated in the central part of each bloc.