The Mallola Residence for the elderly is the result of cooperation between public and private non-profit organizations, as it was built with the financial support of the Foundation Félix Llobet Nicolau, and constructed on a site donated by the City of Esplugues de Llobregat. The management lies in Fundació Privada Casal dels Avis d'Esplugues. Around 70% of the seats are arranged with the Generalitat de Catalunya, Catalan government.
The Residence houses the services of the day center for 35 users, home to 52 users who are autonomous and assisted living for 52 users with varying degrees of dependence and need for a third person.
BASIC CRITERIA FOR THE PROJECT
The long low building, with a predominantly horizontal component, has a basement, ground floor and two floors, in accordance with the current regulations that apply.
In the basement are located storage and general services, an auditorium and a multipurpose room. Two English patios located in the north and south facades provide ventilation and illumination.
The ground floor houses the day care center, dining services and recreational community areas, the kitchen, the administration facilities and medical and social services.
The first and second floors host the bedrooms and bathrooms. Given the geometry of the plant and its orientation, almost all the bedrooms are oriented either to the south, east or west, and only a few number to the north.
The topography of the site, the location of the building within the site and its geometry delimit five outdoor areas which, properly treated and gardened, give a high comfort and beauty to the day center and residence. The largest area is available in the south of the building and in front of the Raval de San Mateu street, and it hosts the main access to the center and has a small area with banks for the leisure of the elderly and their families. In the northeast of the building, a paved area acts as loading and unloading area for the kitchen and laundry and as a car park. Two areas are delimited by the building constructed bodies and are used as outdoor landscaped open areas of the daycare center and home-residence, and are the most private spaces.
COMPOSITIONAL CRITERIA
The envelope of the building is resolved in only two materials, ceramic brick for the massive closures and golden-coloured aluminum windows.
We opted for the ceramic brick because of the versatility that the small piece gives, its easy maintenance and because it is a material that ages very well, supporting the atmospheric and climatic elements well and even improving its quality over time.
The building gets a strong horizontal component that manifests in a clear and emphatic way in its facade in Raval de San Mateu street. The compositional criteria adopted reflects a play game between the massive brick surfaces and the repetitive openings, specially conditioned by the first and second floors where the bedrooms are located, where a single hole is modulated repetitively. This modulation is also found in the ground floor, modifying the geometry of the openings and expanding them to the ground, and therefore changing the perception of the solid-empty relationship.
The bedroom windows have a lattice of aluminum slats to control heat and light. These blinds give a dynamic game on the facades, randomly alternating its open and close positions.
