105 Apartments for the Elderly, Barcelona

About

The project distributes 105 housing units in three volumes with a fan-shaped layout on one same double-height volume containing a health center and a civic center. Faced with the complexity of the context – in the 22@ district, on an urban block where the city fabric is cut off by Avinguda Diagonal –, the project adopts a double strategy: on one hand, the plinth acknowledges the layout of the city’s gridded expansion (Eixample), following its alignments; on the other, the volumes extend the sequence of neighboring blocks that respond to the Diagonal. Both geometries meet at the corner, reinforcing the identity of the Cerdà plan. By Plaça de les Glòries, the complex addresses both the even pattern of the Ensanche and the nearby blocks facing Avinguda Diagonal, engaging in dialogue with iconic buildings like the Agbar Tower. Each building has seven or eight apartments per landing, with a central corridor that is illuminated and extended at the ends, to house a vertical core towards the north and a communal balcony with south-facing views. On the roofs are the laundry area, clotheslines, and solariums for kitchen gardens. The roof of the plinth is fit out as a terrace at the height of the treetops; with benches, it becomes a viewing platform that merges the three buildings together into a single community. Each one has a multipurpose space, connected with the exterior, to organize activities promoted by the social services department.

Sources

• Arquitectura Viva
• Arquitectura Viva