Open Competition, Winner

72 Social Housing Units at the Marina del Prat Vermell

Project Partners

Coll-Leclerc

Client

Barcelona City Council,
IMHAB Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge de Barcelona

Location

Barcelona, Spain

Year

2018-2022

Surface

8000 m²

Awards

2025 Archdaily Building of the Year / Housing / Nominated
2025 World-Architects Building of the Year / Nominated
2024 Palmarés Architecture Aluminium TECHNAL / Collective Housing / Mention
2024 Mapei Award for Sustainable Architecture / Residential Building / Finalist
2024 TECHNAL Awards – Reduction of carbon footprint – 219,63 Tn of CO2 emissions saved for the environment
2024 Architizer A+ Awards / Sustainable Multi-Unit Residential Building / Special Mention
2023 Architecture Masterprize / Social Housing /
Winner
2023 LOOP Design Awards, Architecture / Multi Unit Housing / Nominated

Overview

The triangular streets Ulldecona-Cal and Cisó-Pontils mark the plot of the PMU sector 10 of the Zona Franca, Marina. The project keeps this triangular shape in plan, without penalizing the typological clarity and rationality of the house. Therefore, the 3 vertex of the plot will remain as three closed corners, without chamfer and without any simplifications of the geometry trying to define the houses as rectangular as possible and leaving the exceptional spaces for the terraces.

It will fit mainly, social small format, including apartments of two rooms, with similar conditions of ventilation, sunlight, typology and views. We propose five volumes resulting from the triangle cut of the three passages, following exactly the north-south orientation. Instead of having houses in south and north, we developed a proposal with five blocks and one dimension per block, similar to its own environment.

The passages have a different dimension. As a result, what we see are three blocks instead of five: both to east and west, acquiring a greater dimension, while the central block completes the rotary volumetric of the triangle. This produces some ambiguity in the vision of the whole building, depending on the point of view: from the east and west corners, the reading are that of a single unit block, with fissures.

From the south facade, the reading is of 3 or 5 volumes through which, the sun’s rays cross Ulldecona street at 12:00 of the midday. The block materializes or dematerializes according to the position of the observer. With this resource, the geometry of the triangle is generating compact volume and at the same time, rationalizes the volume by closing it with equivalent blocks, with twelve houses per floor, all in a corner, and therefore with double orientation, ventilation and 100% sunlight.

The triangular streets Ulldecona-Cal and Cisó-Pontils mark the plot of the PMU sector 10 of the Zona Franca, Marina. The project keeps this triangular shape in plan, without penalizing the typological clarity and rationality of the house. Therefore, the 3 vertex of the plot will remain as three closed corners, without chamfer and without any simplifications of the geometry trying to define the houses as rectangular as possible and leaving the exceptional spaces for the terraces.

It will fit mainly, social small format, including apartments of two rooms, with similar conditions of ventilation, sunlight, typology and views. We propose five volumes resulting from the triangle cut of the three passages, following exactly the north-south orientation. Instead of having houses in south and north, we developed a proposal with five blocks and one dimension per block, similar to its own environment.

The passages have a different dimension. As a result, what we see are three blocks instead of five: both to east and west, acquiring a greater dimension, while the central block completes the rotary volumetric of the triangle. This produces some ambiguity in the vision of the whole building, depending on the point of view: from the east and west corners, the reading are that of a single unit block, with fissures.

From the south facade, the reading is of 3 or 5 volumes through which, the sun’s rays cross Ulldecona street at 12:00 of the midday. The block materializes or dematerializes according to the position of the observer. With this resource, the geometry of the triangle is generating compact volume and at the same time, rationalizes the volume by closing it with equivalent blocks, with twelve houses per floor, all in a corner, and therefore with double orientation, ventilation and 100% sunlight.

The triangular streets Ulldecona-Cal and Cisó-Pontils mark the plot of the PMU sector 10 of the Zona Franca, Marina. The project keeps this triangular shape in plan, without penalizing the typological clarity and rationality of the house. Therefore, the 3 vertex of the plot will remain as three closed corners, without chamfer and without any simplifications of the geometry trying to define the houses as rectangular as possible and leaving the exceptional spaces for the terraces.

It will fit mainly, social small format, including apartments of two rooms, with similar conditions of ventilation, sunlight, typology and views. We propose five volumes resulting from the triangle cut of the three passages, following exactly the north-south orientation. Instead of having houses in south and north, we developed a proposal with five blocks and one dimension per block, similar to its own environment.

The passages have a different dimension. As a result, what we see are three blocks instead of five: both to east and west, acquiring a greater dimension, while the central block completes the rotary volumetric of the triangle. This produces some ambiguity in the vision of the whole building, depending on the point of view: from the east and west corners, the reading are that of a single unit block, with fissures.

From the south facade, the reading is of 3 or 5 volumes through which, the sun’s rays cross Ulldecona street at 12:00 of the midday. The block materializes or dematerializes according to the position of the observer. With this resource, the geometry of the triangle is generating compact volume and at the same time, rationalizes the volume by closing it with equivalent blocks, with twelve houses per floor, all in a corner, and therefore with double orientation, ventilation and 100% sunlight.

Team

Maria Chiara Zilliani, Marc Subirana, Mauro Soro

Quantity Surveyor

Josep Domenech, EDDOM

Structures and Installations

IDP INGENIERIA Y ARQUITECTURA
IBERIA SL

NEWS

LINK: Project 72 Social Housing Units at the Marina del Prat Vermell featured in Archdaily

LINK: 72 Social Housing Units published on Dezeen

LINK: Project 72 Social Housing Units at the Marina del Prat Vermell featured in Detail

PROJECTS

Fira Barcelona Innovation Hub

iGuzzini Illuminazione Iberica Headquarters

Barceloneta Market and Square