62 social housing in Madrid
The urban solution
The project is located in a newly developed periurban area, where the spatial framework of the historic city is nonexistent, and where architecture should not elude its ability to create “place”. The building is thus formally rotund, and the aim is for its expressive qualities to generate defined, identifiable settings that weave together the new city.
Looking for the desired formal expressiveness of the project, there is an available façade solution that changes over time, by being materialized in different planes with distinct sun orientations, reflecting the passing of the hours in its self-cast shadows, and the solution of shutters to the west, whose variable use generates an interesting vibration with the façade.
Contrary to the domestic scale of the holes of the windows, there appear new holes at a bigger urban scale (balconies), which provide the facade with a more abstract image and respond to the urban space of the huge “Boulevard of Nature”.
A high-density Bakelite sheet is used for façade and shutters in ochre tones, in response to its westerly orientation, designed so that the façade may reflect the golden hues of the Madrid sunsets. It is installed with the EUROFOX substructure, a mechanical system seen through lacquered rivets for integration into the FUNDERMAX panel, with a thickness of 8 mm.
Cladding technology
We intend to use new materials for cladding, looking for a compromise between better technical performances and moderate production costs (considering the condition of social housing).
We have opted for a rear ventilated façade of high-density bakelite sheets, generating an air chamber between the cladding and the continuous insulation of polyurethane foam.
That way we generate a cladding lighter than the traditional which at the same time avoids efficiently thermal bridges, interstitial condensations and overheating through insolation.
Due to standardisation of modules for sheets and shutters it is possible to reduce significantly installation times and costs.
The staircases of metal sheets as well are prefabricated in entire modules of two storeys height, that afterwards undergo galvanisation and are mounted almost finished onsite, once again reducing costs and time of assembling.
Typology of the housing block and housing units
Contrary to the existing standard of the compact housing block we intend an increasing dissolution of the block and a maximum permeability between the open community spaces and the public space of the city. Thus the building is fragmented into independent units, separated through open capillaries and elevated over an open spaced ground floor generating favourable conditions of ventilation and thermal comfort. The block is colonised by housing units crossing the important depth of 15 meters and the vertical communication is located next to the interior common zones, participating intentionally in this natural open space.
The housing units are organised as two big spaces separating the areas of day and night by immovable stripes of service rooms. The day-zone is placed towards the west and connected to the strip of kitchen-drying room. The night-zone goes to the east joining the strip of bathrooms. This disposition means to offer flexibility through pooling together immovable uses (kitchens, bathroom--) and to free day and night zones for future modifications in distribution. Between the stripes of service rooms lies the inner court yard which illuminates and purges the open ground floor. The generated concentration of installations in stripes optimises the costs for distribution and maintenance.#socialhousing