Date Type: Construcción

R50 Cohousing

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R50 Cohousing

Urban Design Inclusion Public-private initiative Participatory processes

Main objectives of the project

R50 - cohousing in Berlin-Kreuzberg is a joint building venture project with 19 apartments and shared spaces. The concrete structure and modular timber facade were specifically designed for this building, allowing a direct dialogue between architecture and use. The compact and efficient design process involved extensive participation and led to agreements on shared spaces, including an urban garden, access ramp, laundry, workshop, and roof terrace. The building offers low-cost and adaptable housing with a sustainable approach to urban living, integrating into the existing fabric.

Date

  • 2013: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: ifau
  • Architect: Jesko Fezer
  • Architect:  HEIDE & VON BECKERATH

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Berlin
Country/Region: Berlin, Germany

Description

R50 - cohousing is a joint building venture project in Berlin-Kreuzberg. It was initiated by the architects during the course of a concept-based award procedure for building plots and implemented in close cooperation with the clients. The building proposal is founded on a clear urban design position, robust and precisely detailed architectural design, and both a collective and individual process of occupancy.

The detached building is surrounded by various housing concepts characteristic of Berlin’s post-war period. It has six full storeys, a basement and an attic. It comprises three blocks with 19 individual apartments, one studio and various shared spaces. Underneath is a double-height, flexible community space which connects the building’s main access with the public street space. It is made available for neighbourhood groups and other public uses. The reinforced concrete structure was designed to minimum requirements. Combined with the reduced and partly exposed infrastructure, the modular timber facade with fixed and flexible, outward opening glazed door elements was specifically developed for this building. This combined with the all-around balconies on each level allows a direct dialogue between the building’s architecture and its use.

Meeting the owners’ aspiration for collective and affordable living and working, the architectural concept is based on a compact and efficient structure with carefully detailed connections on different scales. It is based on a concrete skeleton with one access and two service cores, an independent timber facade and a suspended steel construction for the all-around balconies. A slightly sunken basement level provides access to the building and merges private and public spaces. Each apartment and all additional community spaces were developed by an intensive process of consultations, discussions and design. Based on the structural framework the sizes of apartments could be determined and individual requirements accommodated in the floor plans. In parallel to this process, a common standard for fixtures and fittings was developed and defined, which has resulted in a collective approach to interior fittings, the use of materials and some surfaces left unfinished, whilst allowing individual layouts of the apartments.
This kind of structured yet open design process has not only allowed for extensive participation, self-directed design and self-building, but has also led to mutual agreement on the type, location, size and design of spaces shared by residents. This includes the generous urban garden, which naturally blends into the landscape of the surrounding 1960s residential neighbourhood, an access ramp leading to a covered area in front of the basement, a laundry, a workshop and a roof terrace with a summer kitchen and a winter garden. The all around balconies accompany the bright interior spaces and connect the apartments on each floor.

Plot 2,056 m2
GFA 2,780 m2
Net usable space 2,311 m2
Living space 2,158 m2
Community space 122 m2
All-around balconies 462 m2
Roof terrace 38 m2

R50 cohousing is a new model typology for low-cost and affordable housing offering a maximum capacity for adaptation and flexibility throughout its lifetime. Social, cultural, economic and ecological aspects have been considered equally to define a contemporary sustainable approach to urban living. The limit set by German Energy Saving Regulations (EnEV 2009) was reduced by 30%. Another essential aspect of sustainability is the building’s particular ability to integrate into the existing urban fabric.

Authors:

Fundació Mies van der Rohe Barcelona

Urban Spaces 1 / Dogarilor Apartment Building

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Urban Spaces 1 / Dogarilor Apartment Building

Urban Design Services and infrastructure Liveability

Main objectives of the project

Located in Mulhouse's popular district near the city center, this project consists of 59 social rental dwellings developed by SOMCO. Our goal is to provide generous dwellings without increasing rent. We aim to address the issue of densification in Bucharest's central area while preserving the qualities of the existing neighborhood. The building design seeks to maintain the narrow plots' porosity and blend with the surrounding collage-like appearance. It balances the required alignment with the specific characteristics of the street and urban fabric. The apartments offer diverse typologies, ranging from studios to four-bedroom units, with private courtyards, balconies, or terraces. Common spaces, commercial areas, and ateliers are also included. The flexible design allows for unit combinations, resulting in a total of 77 residential units and approximately 50 apartment types. Site size: 2082 m2; Building size: 8931 m2.

Date

  • 2014: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: ADN Birou de Arhitectura

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Bucharest
Country/Region: Bucharest, Romania

Description

The project is located in Mulhouse in a popular district close to the city center, currently under renovation. It includes 59 social rental dwellings developed by SOMCO, operator on public social housing. A few years after the Cité Manifeste experience, our common goal was to pursue the same aims: generous dwellings without increasing the rent. One of the most important and problematic aspects of nowadays Bucharest is the fast densification of the central area. While we believe that density can, and many times must be seen as a form of sustainability, we also admit that the often fragile relationship between habitation within an old neighborhood and the increase of density could many times alter the place and reduce its existing qualities.

Our project is looking for an appropriate answer to this problem. It tries to mediate between different sizes and densities, in a quite central neighborhood characterized by small streets, long, narrow plots and a puzzle of old and new buildings of all types and scales. The building searches to preserve, at its own scale, the porosity and “profoundness” of the deep, narrow plots, while also trying to capture part of the “collage”-like appearance of the surroundings. The volumetric proposal seeks to partially open the building to the street, in the depth of the plot. Because of this, the volume facing the street is less compact and the ground floor is more transparent, in order to allow a better visual connection at eye s level. In this way, we have also tried to mediate between the continuous alignment required by the urban regulation and the specific of the street and of the surrounding urban fabric, characterized by fragmentation. At the same time, the project proposes a type of habitation which we consider suitable for the center of the contemporary city: a place where the relatively small spaces and the density are complemented by diversity and wider common spaces. Most of the apartments are different from one another, not only in size, but especially in typology: they range from studios to four-bedroom apartments – each one of them laying on one, two or even three floors and having private courtyards, balconies or terraces of different sizes. They all are complemented by several indoor and outdoor common spaces (terraces, party room, large halls etc.), while the ground floor offers several commercial spaces and ateliers to rent, towards the street and the inner courtyard. The apartments are conceived in such way as to allow a great deal of flexibility, making it possible to connect (horizontally or vertically) two or more small units into a larger one, leading, in the end, at a building consisting of 77 residential units offering approx. 50 types of apartments. Size of the site: 2082 m2; Size of the building: 8931 m2

Authors:

LIFE REUSING POSIDONIA/ 14 social dwellings in Sant Ferran, Formentera

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LIFE REUSING POSIDONIA/ 14 social dwellings in Sant Ferran, Formentera

Mismatches Climate change
Urban Design Quality

Main objectives of the project

Life Reusing Posidonia is a Climate Change Adaptation Project funded by the European LIFE + program. It integrates Heritage, Architecture, and Climate Change to explore sustainable solutions using local resources. The project focuses on reusing Posidonia, a type of seaweed, as a key material throughout the building.

Date

  • 2017: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: Joaquín Torrebella Nadal
  • Architect:  Alberto Rubido Piñón
  • Promotor: Institut Balear de l’Habitatge (IBAVI)

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Formentera
Country/Region:

Description

Life Reusing Posidonia is a Climate Change Adaptation Project financed by the European LIFE + program for nature conservation projects. The project links Heritage, Architecture and Climate Change with the aim to recover the local resources as a cultural approach in the contemporary research for sustainable solutions.

Traditional architecture has been a constant reference, not for its forms, but as a way of working. By doing so, we look for the available local resources: the juniper trees are now fortunately protected and the sandstone quarries (marès) have been depleted. Therefore, we only have what arrives by sea: Posidonia. So we propose a shift in approach which has been applied to every single part of the building:

“Instead of investing in a chemical plant located 1,500 km away, we could invest the same amount in local labor, who should lay out the Posidonia to dry under the sun and compact it by hand. Sea salt acts as natural biocide and is completely environmentally friendly.” The use of dry Posidonia as thermal insulation reminds us that we do not live in a house but an ecosystem.
1. TO DEMONSTRATE:

The viability of constructing the prototype with an additional cost of 5% over the usual price of the IBAVI social housing buildings.

2. TO REDUCE:

63% of CO2 emissions during the construction of the building.
775,354.6 kg/CO2 have been saved. Calculation performed through the TCQ program of ITEC.
75% of useful energy during the lifetime of the building.
Nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB), with maximum consumption of 15 kWh/m²/year (17,226.30 kWh/year).
The average thermal comfort measured in situ is 21ºC in winter and 26ºC in summer.
60% water consumption.
Maximum limit 88 l/person and day. Average consumption based on the tenants’ bills.
50% waste production during the construction phase
36.98 tones have been saved due to in-site reusing measures.

3. ORGANIZATION & PROGRAM

The two street facades facing main sea breezes (North & East) to cool in summer allow dividing the volume into two separate blocks with different orientations.
The entrance to all homes is directly on to the street.
All the dwellings face two directions and cross ventilation thanks to the layout of the living room in a Z shape and a bedroom at each corner.

All the materials have been selected through a market study based on their embodied energy and the transport cost to Formentera.

We tested solutions based on the recovery of eco-friendly local artisan industries with KM 0 raw materials, which are in danger of extinction. Usually these are small family companies that do not have eco-labels, but they can easily be inspected in person. The combined use of these available local materials with those imported that do have environmental labels is a replicable model that makes it possible to reduce more than 60% of CO2 emissions during the works. For instance, load-bearing walls with non-reinforced lime foundations, laminated wood slabs, white lime plaster on facades, sandstone cistern vaults, handmade glazed tiles, bricks baked in biomass mortar kilns, etc.

All indoor carpentry and the shutters on the ground floor were made of reused second hand doors and wood from the ‘Deixalles’ waste-management plant in Mallorca.

The organization of spaces and formal decisions have been the result of knowing the advantages and limitations of natural materials, which are more fragile. This fragility has become a design opportunity.

Authors:

Residential and studio building at the former Berlin flower market

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Residential and studio building at the former Berlin flower market

Urban Design Environments
Promotion and production Innovation

Main objectives of the project

This project aimed to create a building group at the former Berlin flower market, offering owner-occupied artists' workshops, apartments, cooperative housing, and studios. The architects ifau and HEIDE & VON BECKERATH collaborated with Selbstbaugenossenschaft Berlin eG to provide live and work units for artists and creative professionals. The site's central location and low land price allowed for cross-subsidization, enabling low rents for cooperative spaces. The building's layout and design were developed collaboratively with the building group, incorporating communal facilities. The architectural concept included horizontal access cores, atriums, and flexible floor plans to meet occupants' needs. The building utilized cost-efficient prefabricated components and environmentally sustainable materials. The design also allowed for future conversion, retrofitting, and adaptation. The project included 66 apartments, 17 studios, and three commercial units designed to accommodate individual preferences.

Date

  • 2018: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: ifau
  • Architect:  HEIDE & VON BECKERATH

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Berlin
Country/Region: Berlin, Germany

Description

Owner-occupied artists’ workshops and apartments, cooperative housing and studios, space provision for social associations and commerce were part of the programme, which would establish a new building group and hence lay the foundation for the residential and studio building at the former Berlin flower market. The main idea for the project, which was initiated by the architects ifau and HEIDE & VON BECKERATH in cooperation with the Selbstbaugenossenschaft Berlin eG, was to offer a mix of live and work units that would meet the needs of artists and creative professionals. The starting point for the building’s layout and design was a collaborative and socially mixed utilisation concept. Moreover, the comparatively low land price allowed the cross-subsidisation of cooperative residential and studio spaces within the project, which can be let at a sustainable low rent. The decision-making process determining the development of a binding standard for fittings and the type and position of several communal facilities took place in close collaboration with the building group.

The site’s central location near Friedrichstraße suggests that the present mix of uses, which includes inexpensive housing in the neighbourhood, is at risk in the foreseeable future. To redress this trend a concept-linked award procedure was launched for the flower market site and an innovative multi-stage qualification process was developed, whose aim was to support the ongoing project and assure the quality of architecture and urban development. The architectural concept is based on three connected horizontal access cores as well as the relation between the building envelope and five internal atriums. These parameters describe and inform the type of units and integrate the building into the neighbourhood. The access at ground level accommodates access to various studios, a garden, communal utility rooms and a basement. The access on level 1 is linked to green atriums and provides access to apartments on two levels. Another access route is situated on level 4 as well as a shared space and a roof terrace. All apartments and studios can be combined and some of them even linked directly in the design development stage to adapt the spatial concept to the occupiers’ needs. The structure is a combined cross-wall and column construction. The underlying principle is that units in the centre of the building are arranged in modules over a depth of 23 m while units at the ends of the building relate to their surroundings. All ground floor spaces are transparent and can be extended into the adjacent public areas. The building envelope combines ceramic elements, windows and fixed glazing in its facade. Generous prefabricated balconies are situated in the south and west. The building is designed with cost-efficient prefabricated components and could be mostly constructed to the energy efficiency standard 70 of the German Energy Saving Ordinance using mainly environmentally sustainable building materials. Access concepts and floor plans are flexible to accommodate possible conversion and retrofitting as well as adaptation to changing demands. The design of the floor plans for the 66 apartments is both demand-based and user-oriented. Seventeen studios and three commercial units are designed as blanks so that the different needs of individual occupants can be incorporated in the standard of fittings.

Authors:

Performative Brise- Soleil

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Performative Brise- Soleil

Urban Design Services and infrastructure Liveability

Main objectives of the project

The Performative Brise-Soleil transforms a challenging housing location into a space of abundance. It is part of an urban neighborhood offering affordable housing, social amenities, and commercial spaces. The vertical organization within the building allows for diverse flat types, including cluster-living and housing cooperatives. The Performative Brise-Soleil, a vertical "garden-shelf," creates a three-dimensional sphere of free space while serving as a noise shield. It acts as a parametric sculpture along the highway, deflecting noise and providing access to the apartments. The concrete structure reflects the building's inner complexity and incorporates open and closed surfaces. The use of climbing plants adds a layer of greenery to the building over time.

Date

  • 2018: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: StudioVlayStreeruwitz ZT-GMBH

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Vienna
Country/Region: Austria, Vienna

Description

Translating constraints into spatial abundancy: Vertical free space for subsidized housing The architectural invention of the Performative Brise-Soleil turns an “impossible” housing location into exciting spatial opportunities, undermining the scarce realm of subsidized housing with abundant free spaces. The project is part of a new urban neighbourhood offering affordable housing (about 600 rental apartments) with additional social, educational and commercial uses in the ground floor. The bar-type (156 apts) forms the neighbourhood’s western edge, shielding off the highway-noise from the inner-area. Its ground floor provides a kindergarten, a workshop for handicapped people, a communal gym-space, and an office for caretakers of homeless people.

The complex vertical organisation within the bar allows for the stacking of diverse flat types, enabling a wide range of living-models, including cluster-living and housing cooperatives. The complexity’s common denominator is the Performative Brise-Soleil: a vertical “garden-shelf”, whose significant concrete structure converts the protective idea of a noise-shield into a 3-dimensional sphere of experiencing free space.

The Performative Brise-Soleil is a design-coup, which converts the defensive obligation of noise-protection into an inviting cosmos of co-living: the combination of type-mutation (vertical differentiation), landscape-infiltration, and living diversity transforms the noise-shield-bar into a socially sustainable and spatially generous vertical neighbourhood. Along the highway the Brise-Soleil represents itself as a parametric sculpture meticulously designed for orchestrating the proximity between highway and living. On the lower levels, a specific configuration of patios and balconies deflects the noise. Above, open access corridors, accompanied by sliding glass elements and storage boxes, offer both access and free space to the apartments, via bridges, framing single atriums above the “commons”, a generous neighbourhood-terrace on 5th floor. The Brise-Soleil reflects the curved building’s inner complexity: a stacking of different flat-types and landscapes, provoking synergies for a mixed housing program, which, aside from usual living models, involves housing-cooperatives, cluster-living, and special forms of generation-living. Construction and materiality emphasize the vertical diversity of flat-types. The concrete structure is used to extrapolate vertical diversity: the bar type’s depth alternates between 13 and 23m. Spatially, structurally and physically, the face of the Performative Brise-Soleil is the most significant element, hiding and expressing the building’s inner complexity at the same time. Its texture of open and closed surfaces consists of concrete as the main ingredient, reflecting the concept of adding value to a realm of scarcity. The concrete’s surfaces alternate between rough/raw, as created by the nonchalance of the construction-team, and elegant/noble, provided by a prefabricated relief of irregular vertical lines. Single glazing is discretely inserted for noise protection where necessary. Along the common terrace runs a plant-trough made of galvanized steel that accentuates the gentle curve of the building. From this trough, climbing plants grow along vertical cables, continuing the personalized greenery from the lower balconies and patios, which in time will cover the building with a layer of leaves, adding a secondary materiality.

Authors:

Occidentului 40

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Occidentului 40

Urban Design Environments Quality Inclusion

Main objectives of the project

A vertically moving house in Bucharest.
This building on Occidentului Street in Bucharest blends well with the neighborhood by decomposing its volume into smaller houses of varying heights. The design features split-level apartments with staggered floors and open facades that showcase the interior life. The street facade reflects the structural order and distribution of cells, while small balconies occupy the contact area with the vertical structure.

Date

  • 2017: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: ADN Birou de Arhitectura

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Bucharest
Country/Region: Bucharest, Romania

Description

Ubicado en una calle típica de la zona central de Bucarest, con una imagen y densidad similares a las de las metrópolis occidentales clásicas, el edificio contribuye a unir el frente. La descomposición del volumen en cuerpos más pequeños de diferentes alturas suaviza el efecto en el vecindario y la calle, preservando la atmósfera urbana típica de Bucarest.

La calle Occidentului es una calle típica de la zona central de Bucarest, con villas aisladas en medio del patio, casas de vagones, edificios de la época de entreguerras e inserciones de los años 60 y 70. El volumen general se descompone a través de varios movimientos y retranqueos en una fila de casas más pequeñas con diferentes alturas que secuencian la percepción del edificio y matizan la relación con las casas vecinas y el entorno fragmentario. La intervención propone una comunidad de 20 apartamentos y una unidad comercial en la parcela amplia pero relativamente estrecha. Todas las unidades son transversales y de doble orientación, y se organizan en niveles divididos. En lugar de los típicos pisos apilados, aquí los pisos y techos se mueven y generan una serie de pisos escalonados, diferencias de nivel y variaciones en altura y profundidad, lo que le otorga a los apartamentos una dimensión vertical de la vivienda.

Las fachadas abiertas reflejan la vida interior variada del edificio y buscan cierto tipo de "transparencia"; la disposición de los apartamentos define y está definida por el orden estructural del edificio y se revela claramente hacia el exterior.

En lugar de plataformas generales, aquí los pisos y techos se desplazan, creando apartamentos de varios niveles con espacios de una, una y media o dos alturas. La fachada de la calle expresa el orden estructural y la distribución de las celdas. Sus elegantes proporciones reflejan la armonía de las relaciones interiores.

Los grandes paneles de vidrio con marcos metálicos no ocupan toda la bahía. El área de contacto con la estructura vertical está ocupada por pequeños balcones, otro tipo de espacios al aire libre, diferentes de las terrazas o el piso superior retirado.

Authors:

85 Social Housing Units in Cornellà

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85 Social Housing Units in Cornellà

Urban Design Services and infrastructure Environments Quality Liveability Inclusion

Main objectives of the project

85 social housing units in Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona) utilize 8,300 m2 of zero-kilometer timber from the Basque Country. The building features a courtyard that connects intermediate spaces, with a porch on the ground floor serving as an entrance and a meeting point for occupants. The floor plan maximizes space utilization by eliminating corridors, and the rooms are arranged in a matrix layout. The structure incorporates cross-laminated timber walls and laminated timber columns and beams. The façade utilizes an electro welded wire mesh construction system for sun shading and terrace handrails. The timber volume per square meter is optimized at 0.24m3/m2 for economic feasibility in social housing.

Date

  • 2020: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: peris+toral.arquitectes

Location

Continent: Europe
City: l'Hospitalet de Llobregat
Country/Region: Barcelona, Spain

Description

85 dwellings, 543 spaces and 2172 corners For the 10,000 m2 of built surface area of the new building in Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona), consisting of 85 social housing units laid out on five levels, a total of 8,300 m2 of zero kilometre timber from the Basque Country has been used. The bases of this new residential building are a matrix of communicating rooms that eliminates corridors to guarantee optimum use of the floor plan and the use of timber to enable the industrialization of elements, improved quality of construction and a major reduction of deadlines and C02 emissions.

The building is organized around a courtyard that articulates a sequence of intermediate spaces. On the ground floor, a porch opens up to the city, anticipating the doorway of the building and filtering the relationship between public space and the courtyard that acts as a small plaza for the community. The four vertical communication shafts are situated at the four corners of the courtyard so that all the occupants converge and meet in the plaza, which represents a safe space from a gender perspective. On the model floor, entry to the apartments is from the communication shaft and the private terraces that make up the ring of outdoor spaces that overlook the courtyard. The building’s general floor plan is a matrix of communicating rooms. There are 114 spaces per floor, all of similar dimensions, eliminating both private and community corridors to make the maximum use of the floor space. The server spaces are laid out in the central ring, while the rest of the rooms, of undifferentiated use and size (13 m2), in the façade, accommodate different forms of occupation. The surface area and proportion allow generous corners as a support that facilitates the appropriation of space. The structure is mainly determined by setting 3,60m short spans, matching the matrix of rooms. Therefore, multiple supports uphold CLT slabs: cross-laminated timber bearing walls in the façade and a system of laminated timber columns and beams in the centred bays. The structure is optimised by compensating momentums with multiple supports and cantilevers at all ends.

In order to achieve economic feasibility in social housing, timber volume needed by built squared metre is been optimised down to 0,24m3/m2

The façade’s construction system and the structure joints are both solved by mechanical bonds, avoiding the use of scaffolds. The exterior building skin is built up with electro welded wire mesh, holding/bearing sun shading and filtering sights. By bending, this element improve steadiness and at the same time it shapes the terrace’s handrail.

Authors:

Fundació Mies van der Rohe Barcelona

8 House

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8 House

Urban Design Urban fabrics Services and infrastructure Environments Quality Inclusion

Main objectives of the project

8 House is a 62,000 m2 building that combines suburban tranquility with urban energy. It offers a variety of accommodations, including apartments, penthouses, and townhouses. The design by BIG incorporates elements of townhouses and functionalistic architecture, creating a cohesive structure with varying heights and abundant light. The building features communal facilities and a passage connecting surrounding areas. The apartments enjoy views and fresh air, while the commercial spaces interact with the street. With 476 residential units and 10,000 m2 of businesses, 8 House emphasizes durability and low maintenance materials. It optimizes natural light, heating, and ventilation, and incorporates green roofs for environmental benefits and visual appeal.

Date

  • 2010: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Copenhagen
Country/Region: Copenhagen, Denmark

Description

8 House is where you will find the attention to detail embedded in a larger context. Here, closeness thrives in the 62,000 m2 building. This is where the tranquility of suburban life goes hand in hand with the energy of a big city, where business and housing co-exist. 8 House is where common areas and facilities merge with personal life, and where you can reach for the stars at the top of the building’s green areas. The building’s housing program offers three kinds of accommodation: apartments of varied sizes, penthouses and townhouses. With a mix of suburban tranquillity and urban energy, the townhouse and its open housing is ideal for the modern family, while singles and couples may find the apartments more attractive. And for those who live life to the fullest, the penthouses function as a playground with fantastic views over the canal and Southern Copenhagen.

8 House is designed by BIG who has been partly inspired by classic townhouses as well as the open, democratic nature of functionalistic architecture. The architects have designed a long, coherent house with immense differences in height, creating a strong inflow of light and a unique local community with small gardens and pathways. The bow-shaped building creates two distinct spaces, separated by the centre of the bow which hosts the communal facilities of 500 m2. At the very same spot, the building is penetrated by a 9 meter wide passage that connects the two surrounding city spaces: the park area to the west and the channel area to the east. Instead of dividing the different functions of the building – for both habitation and trades – into separate blocks, the various functions have been spread out horizontally. The apartments are placed at the top while the commercial program unfolds at the base of the building. As a result, the different horizontal layers have achieved a quality of their own: the apartments benefit from the view, sunlight and fresh air, while the office leases merge with life on the street. 8 House, 52,000 m2 accommodates 476 residential units. The base consists of 10,000 m2 businesses, spread out at street level alongside the surrounding main streets, and the Northern court yard that houses an office building. 8 House is partly for rent and partly residential property varying from 65 to 144 m2. Emphasis has been placed on using materials which have a long durability and require little to no maintenance such as hardwood windows, concrete construction, oak flooring, metal panelling, and granite pavers.

The shape of 8 House which is literally “hoisted up” in the North East corner and “squeezed down” at the South West corner, allowing light and air to enter the court yard in the middle, optimizing daylight and natural heating for all inhabitants along with natural ventilation; Rainwater is collected in a storm water management system. Two sloping green roofs totaling 1,700 m2 are strategically placed to reduce the urban heat island effect as well as providing the visual identity to the project and tying it back to the adjacent farmlands.

Authors:

DISTRICT HEATING VALLECAS (ECOBARRIO)

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DISTRICT HEATING VALLECAS (ECOBARRIO)

Main objectives of the project

The Municipal Colonies of San Francisco Javier and Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, located in Vallecas, were demolished in 1997 due to their deterioration. Over 2,000 public housing units were built with centralized heating and hot water systems, as well as a waste collection system. The urbanization was completed in 2009, but the economic crisis interrupted the construction of the buildings connected to the heating system. In 2016, construction was restarted and the implementation of the system was awarded to a construction company. Tests were conducted in completed developments, and it is expected that the heating and hot water supply will be operational in five developments by early 2021. Currently, work is underway to prepare the specifications for the operation and maintenance of the facilities.

Date

  • 2018: Construction

Stakeholders

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Madrid
Country/Region: Madrid, Spain

Description

The San Francisco Javier and Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles Municipal Colonies (hereinafter referred to as "the Colonies"), located in the Vallecas district, were built between 1956 and 1958. In 1997, the deteriorating condition of the buildings led to their demolition, and the entire Colonies area was replaced with a new urban plan through a Special Plan.

Simultaneously, a process of relocating the residents of the Colonies took place. The objective was to construct over 2,000 public housing units distributed in 20 buildings, equipped with a centralized heating and hot water system, known as District Heating (DH), and a pneumatic waste collection system, with collection bins installed in the buildings (central waste collection). At that time, this was a pioneering system for the production of hot water in residential complexes, relying on high-efficiency boilers and hydrogen fuel cells.

Subsequently, in 2009, the urbanization works began, including the construction of roads with general urban facilities (electricity, water, gas, telephone, and street lighting) and special facilities (distribution networks for hot water and waste collection from the central facilities to the future building plots). Likewise, the construction of the central facilities started, including the corresponding chimneys for the exhaust of gases produced by the combustion of the boilers. The idea was to have a community area with children's playgrounds and spaces for adults underneath the chimneys.

Eventually, the entire Colonies area was urbanized, and the central facilities were constructed. In the generation plant, only two (2) condensing boilers were installed (out of the initially planned six (6)), as well as two (2) hydrogen fuel cells (out of the initially planned six (6)), along with the rest of the associated installations. However, the economic crisis forced the construction of the buildings that would be served by the DH to be halted, preventing the central system from being operational.

In 2016, construction activities resumed by the Municipal Housing and Land Company of Madrid (EMVS), and the new buildings of the Colonies began to be constructed. All of them are intended to receive heating and hot water supply through the DH.

The implementation of the DH start-up project was awarded to the construction company UTE Ferrovial Servicios - Siemsa Industria on July 19, 2018. Initial tests and checks carried out to analyze the condition and suitability of the existing distribution network resulted in the need to undertake a new Heat Network. Consequently, a new calculation and design of the network were carried out, based on the new energy demands requested by the project directors of the Developments associated with the heat plant and in compliance with the new regulations (Technical Building Code).

The control of the entire system, including the DH equipment and the interior installations of the Developments, will be carried out centrally from the Central building. For this purpose, the control system and connection to the Heat Network of all Developments have been unified.

As of today, the New Heat Network is constructed, and operational tests are being conducted in completed developments. It is expected that by early 2021, the DH will provide heating and hot water supply to five Colonies developments.

Work is underway to prepare the specifications that will encompass the Operation and Maintenance of both the DH system and the Developments.

Links

Authors:

Cité Internationale (First Phase)

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Cité Internationale (First Phase)

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 1995: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Lyon
Country/Region: France, Lyon

Description

Authors: