317 Social Housing Units / SV60
Archetech - Page 82
Given the uniqueness of the initiative
designed to provide subsidised
housing based on an attitude that
is contemporary and sensitive to
current social trends, a comprehensive
strategy has been adopted based on
an interpretation of the PLACE and
typological research based on improv ing
living conditions and processes in
order to give rise to quality housing
that is sustainable and adapted to the
various considerations that influence the
construction of the architectural concept.
We understand the place as being an
accumulator of situations, elements or
events that are built as a single concept
based on a broad and complex vision that
establishes guidelines for recognition
that go beyond the strictly visual or
physical values. The place we envisage
has wind, light, malleable spaces, the
future memory of the inhabitants, in
addition to certain property development
patterns that are already established.
Based on this interpretation, an
intervention is proposed that is tailored
to the circumstances pertaining to the
place and attempts to integrate itself
as an abstract element superimposed
by means of a geometric pattern that
governs the entire operation. This
framework allows us to streamline all the
factors pertaining to the project in order
to propose an overall approach that is
unitary both in terms of construction and
urban design.
We bring into play a range of parameters
aimed at creating an independent
fragment of a city that reconstructs
perceptive essences associated with an
understanding of the place itself. Empty
spaces, squares, streets, vantage points
and courtyards are configured as basic
elements in order to define our new
"neighbourhood."
Due to the sharp slope of the plot (40
metres of height difference), the proposal
is to amend the topography by means
of a series of terraces integrated into the
geometric framework, with slopes of
approximately 5 metres, and on which
the various buildings will stand. These
buildings will adapt to the different
slopes, adopting a winding pattern to
seek better orientations and spread
out in a south to north direction (which
corresponds to the orientation of most of
the blocks). In addition, this arrangement
will occur in relation to the adjacent
streets in order to allow pedestrian
access to various points on the plot. The
buildings are proposed in a way that
gives greater importance to the empty
space and to their relationship with the
terrain than to their own or independent
form.
A mixed (mostly residential) programme
is envisaged based on the inclusion of
317 subsidised dwellings (32,742.46 sq.
metres) and various commercial premises
that are strategically distributed around
different parts of the plot (2,472.49
sq. metres in total), together with the