Carabanchel is an historical district of
Madrid, located at the far southern west edge of the city and bordering the
well-known Latin quarter. Its known to be a working class district with a very
Madridian ambient. its population accedes 250000 citizens, the second biggest
in Madrid. For having un built land, its relative low price and the aim to
create more young vital centers to the city, it became a target district for public
housing.
During the last decade
most of public housing projects were built on the South West end of the
district, creating a belt that integrates the old district center and the green
landscape surrounding Madrid.
Below are three iconic
projects shown as an example for innovation, both in construction methods,
design, as well as the urban benefits that they provide.
Case study A- Carabanchel 16
Architects- FOA (Foreign Office Architects), Farshid
moussavi and Alejandro Zaera.
This project is located in
the South-West newly developed belt of Carabanchel, on a plot of 45mX100m. The
architects have chosen to fit the given program into a single block (unlike the
typical Spanish "manzana cerrada") orientated South North, aligned to
the West and leaving the east as a shared garden, built above the residents
parking plot.
The housing municipal
company (Empresa Muncipal de Vivienda y Suelo) was the client of the
project, built by 2007 and contains 88 apartments, 11,384m, at a cost of
6,060,530 euros (2007- 1 euro = 0.63 dollar). Hence the average cost for a
built meter was 532 euros and an average apartment cost was 68,800 euros. A
typical one room apartment was sold for 86,000 euros and a four room apartment
for 150,000 euros. The inhabitants of the new apartments are young couples
(under 35 in 2007) of whom 75% had
previously lived with their parents and had an income of 1.5-2.5 times
the minimum wage.
The units are arranged as
one lifted box of 7 models, each with a nuclear core (staircase and
elevator) with two units on each floor. The 5 core repetitive models contain 3
room apartments while the extreme two models contain 2 and 4 room apartments.
The ground floor is used as the entry and for the apartments that don’t fit the
basic model as one room apartments or apartments suited for the handicapped and
their families.
The low cost of the
building was achieved by using a compact and a repetitive double unit model,
using simple materials and a simple construction method. All the structural
elements are on the extreme East-West axes, avoiding structure in the divisions
between the units, the units thus functioning as tubes between the two
structural axes.
Sustainable qualities were
obtained by a few simple methods: having a north-south orientation, thereby minimizing
the hot south facade (peak temperature in summer can reach 45c), having a
double bamboo skin and creating an integrated micro climate belt surrounding
the entire building, having the bamboo skin function as a louver protecting the
interior from direct sun radiation and achieving that each apartment has an
east-west cross ventilation, having the living rooms on the west end and
sleeping rooms on the east end.
The homogenous bamboo skin
and the vertical gardens on ground floor provide the city with a potential
sustainable icon.
The architect’s decision to
give a homogenous appearance to the building comes as a contrast to the trend
where each unit has a separate identity, thus providing some sort of
identification between home and its inhabitants. The iconographical strength of
the building derives by unifying rather than by separating as well utilizing
the view of the city, as a basis for anonymity and the foundation of individuality.
Case study C- Coco Arquitectos
An extra undefined room is added as a attached box to the facade, creating a uniform appearance as much as a random one. The undefined additional room and the open space free of structure in the interior of each unite provide a container to manifest the uniqueness of each apartment. Only the participance of the inhabitants can acquire significance to the building.
Case study B- Dosmasuno Arquitectos
Architects- Dosmasuno
Arquitectos. Ignacio Borrego, Néstor Montenegro and Lina Toro.
This project of the young
architect studio of Dosmasuno treats the plot in a very similar way as Carabanchel
16, stacking the main core of the building with the exterior limit of the plot,
giving it maximum views of a urban green strip on the one side of the building
and creating its own activity garden on the other.
The housing municipal
company (Empresa Muncipal de Vivienda y Suelo) was the client of the
project, built by 2007 and contains 102 apartments, a common activity garden
raised one floor above ground, diffusing the building in to it and a parking
lot and entrances on ground floor.
The beauty of this project
lies in its simplicity as far as construction methods and cost goes, on the one
hand as well as its complex and irregular appearance - matching an open cabinet
- on the other. The main core of the building is a simple L shape aligned to
the south-west and south- east borders of the plot. It has seven models (4+3)
each with a nuclear (staircase and elevator) and three unite. Each unite
consists on a living room, overlooking the green urban park, a service strip
and one bed room.
This simplicity is seen in
the construction method as well, a method imported from South America.
Prefabricated aluminum one size casts filled with concrete on site are used to
create the identical repetitive models that make up the main core.
The volumetric variation appears by adding the additional
program as light steel attached boxes on the inner facade. As the program
consists on one to three bedroom apartments and the main core units have one
bedroom in them, two sizes of boxes of one or two bed rooms are attached. Each
nuclear model has one apartment without an attachment and two apartments with the
additional box in a way that permits all entrances and service to stay on the
same strip.
Case study C- Coco Arquitectos
This project is located at
the far end of the south-west belt of Carabanchel and is marking for now the
end of the city. Coco Arquitectos chalange here the traditional Spanish form of
the "Manzana Cerrada", the traditional horizontal modern slab
building, the value of the manifestation of topography in an urban context, and
the relationship between individuality and home.
The housing municipal
company (Empresa Muncipal de Vivienda y Suelo) was the client of the project,
built in 2010 and contains 168 apartments, 20,000 built meters, a common
activity central "patio" and a parking lot. Ground floor, a part of
the entrances, is free of any program and creates a filter as well as a
connection to the surrounding city.
By leveling the ground
floor to the slope, maintaining the floor height and having each nuclear core
serving only two apartment on each floor, the inclination repeats itself ascending
the building. The slope literarily pulls the building up with it.
The plan of the main core
of the building is a thin rectangular strip, providing the living room not only
have cross ventilation but has also cross vision, from the interior garden to
the surrounding city.
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