

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


















