12 APARTMENTS | ERMENGARDA

ARCHITECTS

BCQ arquitectura barcelona

LOCATION

Barcelona

YEAR

2005

CLIENT

Patronat Municipal de l'Habitatge de Barcelona

AREA

1.771 m²

STATUS

Built

COLLABORATOR

Eskubi-Turró (structures), FAHE Consulting Arquitectura (M&E engineering, QS), Jaume Millat (construction management)

CONTRACTOR

BUDGET

Social housing build on an elongated site in the district of Sants-Montjüic in Barcelona, in a rather rundown urban setting that is undergoing regeneration. Opposite the Building is a school playground of an intense earthy colour. One end of the site tapers off into Barcelona’s typical bevelled corner, but in this case in a reduced, almost ridiculous version of the Eixample corner.

The new volume comprises a unitary ground floor for shops with two floors of dwellings. The bedrooms in all the apartments overlook the inner courtyard, and the living rooms and kitchens look onto the street. This is possible because all the services and vertical communication shafts are concentrated in the block’s lengthwise central strip. Each floor houses a layout of six apartments with three vertical communication shafts. To optimize the size of the living room, it is combined with a semi-open kitchen. The communal area for hanging out washing is located on the flat roof, conserving Barcelona’s healthy Mediterranean tradition: the collective use of terrace roofs. All the rooftop volumes are dark to emphasise the strip of dwellings in the facade.

FIRST PLACE IN RESTRICTED DESIGN COMPETITION