The layout of the plot is conditioned by the urban planning regulations, which require a compact four-storey building, a prism whose proportions are defined by differentiating a plinth of metal slats on which a skin rests that wraps the dwellings, unifying the reading of the designed volume.
The skin is a barcode (“23VPA Almanjayar” in 128b encoding), which reflects our view of Officially Protected Housing as a serial, labelled element, reduced to just another product within the machinery of the market. The proposed formal approach of using—by changing its scale—one of the resources the market provides to homogenise products (labelling with standardised codes) gives the anonymous residential building its own distinctiveness, an image that contrasts with the rest of the buildings in the area, which become a neutral backdrop that takes us back to the initial starting point: social housing as a mass-produced product, “wrapped” in bland façades—variations on the same theme.
The exterior treatment of the proposed building complements a project that seeks formal and constructive simplicity, with several objectives:
-To achieve maximum economy, as the available resources are very limited, resulting in a final above-ground construction cost of €420/m2 (PEM).
-Minimal maintenance of the common elements.
-Housing typology with all rooms facing the façade, so that they engage with the plot’s open areas and the exterior public spaces.