Location: C/Ali Bei, C/Nàpols, C/ de Ribes (Barcelona).

 

It is a housing complex project, placed in Eixample, the visionary, pioneering urban design of Barcelona in the nineteenth century by Ildefons Cerdà. It is characterized by long straight streets, a strict grid pattern crossed by wide avenues, and octagonal square blocks, where the streets broaden at every intersection making for greater visibility.

 

Completing the Eixample is a project that attempts to close a square  following the logic of the district. The project is organized by two superposed volumes and a tower establishing a visual connection with the Triumphal Arch. In a bigger scale, the proposed intervention prolongs the Ribes road into the block enhancing the corner of the site.

 

The housing units are oriented towards the main façade. Their accesses, on the other hand, are located in the interior façade, by means of passages. It is a more permeable space and incorporates courtyards that creates an open and lively conception of the  passage, which breaks with what a linear corridor is.It has also a visual conection to the activities and movements inside the square, a space that has been thought for a regugee social housing. There are two typologies of housing, simplex (40m2) and duplex (110m2) which combine different types of facade engclosing: solid brick, lattice brick and window. Lattice brick allows ventilation and light to the bedrooms.