Glorias housing

Urban integration and social will.

The Plaza de las Glorias catalanas follows its path to become, finally, the centre of the new Barcelona that Cerdá dreamed of. And in this process, the new residential facilities –of a strongly social nature- are a significant step to define the character of a new urban centre with a clear civic awareness that is added to the ongoing operations for the pacification of the transit and the creation of a new large park.

The new buildings will therefore have to be modest and meaningful at the same time, integrated into the fabric of the Eixample –of which they constitute façade and auction- but representative of the values to be granted to the new urban centre. They must emanate from a wide diversity of residents who, far from highlighting differences, integrate their multiplicity and give them equal treatment, with a powerful ecological concept that creates opportunities for coexistence and puts the accent on everything they can share.

Therefore, a singular complex made of different parts is proposed, each with its own identity, gathered under the same roof, which allows establishing varying degrees of relationship between users and facilitates common life. A set without significant differences between the part that has to be developed by private developers and the public part and that, moreover, gives to the last one the pre-eminent place. A set that, in the same way that many of the blocks of the Eixample have been developed, will maintain its overall coherence despite being carried out by different hands and phases.

  

Ceiling and roof. Image and soul.

This ceiling that shelters the collective life becomes the image that helps to identify the new facility. And this collective life is precisely what defines it.

The Eixample blocks tend to be resounding, with façade alignments that establish a clear difference between what is the public domain -the street- and what is the private sphere -the dwellings-, with ground floor commercial levels where both relate. On the other hand, both the recent market of the Encants and the project of the new Glorias Park make of the roof the reference from which the spaces of activity are articulated; a mirror ceiling, in the first case, and a green roof, in the second.

The project is nourished by all these elements and integrates them into a complex that acquires the standard height of the Eixample blocks. At the level at which the roofs of buildings are usually located, the real soul of the project is placed: a collective space where to develop a shared life that recovers the spirit that fed precisely the rooftops of the city. A space where people can meet each other, where you can carry out joint activities, where children can play, where you can have small orchards ... A space, also, with extraordinary views both towards the immediate environment and towards points away; a view that few social housing inserted in the urban fabric can offer their residents.

Above this rooftop there is the roof of the complex, which not only complements the residential program to be developed but also gives continuity to the "canopy" of the future park and constitutes a source of electricity generation to meet common energy needs.

 

Spaces of coexistence and spaces of transition.

If the roof is the semi-private space that promotes exchanges between residents in the building, the floor closest to the street is the semi-public space intended to facilitate the relationship between these and the rest of the citizens. Breaking the rigid division between public and private of the Eixample facades, this level opens towards the intersection between Gran Vía and Ribes street and facilitates the incorporation of civic life.

By paying attention to the topographic conditions of the surroundings, a fully accessible space is created that can be crossed in different directions, at least during daytime, facilitating the permeability between the city, the park and the Encants; a space from which you can access the stairs of the dwellings, with protected elements to park the bicycles of the residents and with easy access to the shops.

Private spaces, flexible spaces.
The high density of the new residential complex has to be compatible with the guarantee of good climatic conditions for all its parts and therefore the size of the adopted bay optimizes the conditions of the dwellings and endows the with generous spaces in between.

On the other hand, the dividing module that organizes the housing and the disposition of the service nuclei allow to guarantee both their correct lighting and sun conditions and the maximum flexibility in their distribution, so that there are no prefixed hierarchies between the various pieces and that both the varied needs and interests of their users and their changing conditions over time can be accommodated.

together with Buro II & Archi+I