Social Housing in Albacete
The proposal has a double scale, the bigger one created by the whole building complex and a smaller, more domestic, created by the fragmentation of the project into four smaller volumes. The division of the blocks creates an inner green space that gives access to the 58 built houses and it allows some continuity towards the greener areas in the surroundings.
The volumes of the smaller blocks are 5 stories high to avoid shadowing the longer residential volume. This piece has a very open and transparent ground floor, with only one house on this level. Above this, we can find four more stories plus a fifth one with only three penthouse apartments.
Regarding the difficult equilibrium between fragmentation and compaction, we have chosen fragmentation as a key factor in our design. Especially due to the high amount of hours of sun that Albacete enjoys, it is important to capture as much solar radiation as possible for heating purposes. Nevertheless, the southeast and southwest façades that are highly glazed have to be protected from the sun in all cases. To shield from the radiation in the summer and create an intermediate protected outside space that enriches the apartments, the long building volume has eaves and sliding shutters, while the smaller blocks have foldable blinds.
With regards to the units, the project aims for a very clear segregation between daytime and nighttime areas, to minimize the irregularities produced by installations and supporting structures, and to enrich a very rigid distribution scheme with small intermediate spaces.
