area 118 | condominium

architect: Sergi Serrat + Gines Egea + Cristina Garcia

location: Barcelona, Spain

year: 2009

The site is located on the east vertex of “La Clota” park, on the north edge of Barcelona. It’s located in a transition area with a considerable slope, inbetween the consolidated tissue of the city and Tibidabo hillside, originally occupied by a few housing blocks built during the migratory movements of the 50’s and consolidated as a facilities area during the beginning of the 90’s for the olympic games. The plot is a 3.500 sqm trapezoidal shape with a 3,5 meters gap on the short axis and mainly horizontal on the long one. It has an excelent south-east orientation and it has some impressive views of Barcelona with “La Clota” park in first term. The building looks for the best orientation for the dwellings. Over 90% of the dwellings benefit from South-East orientation. That means a great comfort for the inhabitants and a high degree of energy saving either in illumination or climatization of the dwellings. The housing units bars are concentrated on the north perimeter of the plot so the most of the land it’s available to build the civical center as it keeps the best orientation and views.
The building makes an exercise of economic containment. White and void are the only materials used for the composition of the facade. Taking advantage of Mediterranean benevolent climatic conditions terraces function as condensers of activity enhancing the sense of community of the users. It is the place where domestic and civic activities occurs and are shown to the city. They are like the central courtyard of the houses of the Algerian Kashba but placed in a vertical plane. The size (2,5x2,5x2,5) of those voids goes beyond the scale of housing units and speaks on a level closer to the scale of the building and the city. Each user takes possession of its own place in a different way. The set of all those different actions and activities are integrated into the building volume due to the inner position of the terrace. The repetition of the void turns the facade into a chess texture. The white background unifies it all as does the snow fallen on the landscape. The project is solved majorly with the repetition of a 45 sqm unit. The endings of the building are solved either with vertical communications or with a second unit type with its own particular conditions  The structure draws a regular grid of 7x5.5 m that fits the size of the unit. The pillars are retreated 2,5 m from the facade to avoid thermal loses through the structure  The program is disposed through the climatic recognition of the site: the services areas (corridor, maintenance, bath, kitchen and dressing) are located to the north while all the relation areas are located to the south.  The plan layout tries to create the longest interior diagonals possible so the space is perceived in its maximal length. The position of the fridge partly conceals the kitchen and allows the placement of a dining table. The strategically position of the terrace allows the bed room to slide respect the living room and becomes an exterior extension of the unit.
The setback geometry of the façade generates deep terraces that protects the interior space from the excessive solar radiation without blocking the amazing views that the site has.