Social dwellings with shelters for the most vulnerable groups, combined together with Urban Responsibility by generating public space with an interior street, Social Responsibility by matching the conditions of the different programs and Environmental Responsibility by implementing passive design strategies such as the winter garden.

For the first time in Barcelona, two usually separate programs are combined into the same building: social housing with temporary shelters for the inclusion of the most vulnerable groups. The design of the overall project responds to 3 basic criteria: Urban Responsibility by generating public space with an interior street that both separates and visually links both programs. Social Responsibility by matching the conditions of the different programs. Environmental Responsibility by implementing passive design strategies such as the winter garden and obtaining an A energy rating label.
The challenge of this project is to include social reinsertion as one more vector of the design process along with sustainability. Inclusion and accessibility of marginalized people starts with its inclusion in the program. For the first time in Barcelona, two usually separate programs are combined in the same building: official rental housing with temporary shelter accommodation for most vulnerable groups. We seek to integrate them not to stigmatize them.

Its location on a former industrial plot in the new central area of Glories, aims at reinforcing its urban presence by accumulating all the public programs on the ground floor. The constructive concept seeks the same level of comfort for all users taking advantage of the natural characteristics of the site: maximizing solar exposure and cross ventilation on a corner plot. Solar gains are reinforced by the incorporation of a winter garden facing south and large loggias facing the western corner. The solar gain of these intermediate spaces has been simulated with Designbuilder and complemented with highly efficient systems such as aerotermia and double flow ventilation thus achieving an A energy rating.
The selection of material is entirely from the Iberian Peninsula, aiming for the most natural, breathable and healthy as possible, including the invisible ones like the insulation. The ventilated enclosure of Faveton extruded ceramic pieces allows for a great comfort with little insulation (8 cm only). The corrugated design minimizes the weight of the piece and considerably reduces the substructure. This vertical undulated surface brings warmth and light to the façade and these same ripples have been reproduced on the mold of the latticework giving a homogeneous quality to all parts of the envelope and dissimulating domestic activities such as drying clothes. The rest of flooring and ceiling materials have a high thermal resistance for a better inertia like exposed concrete and terrazzo whereas mobile materials such as entrance doors and Barcelona blinds in the balconies use a warm and renewable material: Wood.

La Borda cooperative housing is a self-organized development to access decent, non-speculative housing. It contains 28 units (40, 60 and 75m²) and several community spaces: kitchen-dining room, laundry, multipurpose space, guestrooms, health space, storages, and exterior and semi-exterior spaces such as the patio, bike parking and terraces.

The idea of a housing cooperative was born in 2012 as a project of Can Batlló driven by the community in the process of recovery of the industrial premises, and the neighborhood and cooperative fabric of the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona.

The project is located on a public land of social housing, with a leasehold of 75 years. Located in Constitució Street, in a bordering position of the industrial area of Can Batlló with a facade to the existing neighborhood of La Bordeta. The project aimed to redefine the collective housing program, while creating sustainable building and including user participation at its center.
La Borda's commitment to a community model opposed to the more traditional public or private promotions has made it possible to overcome some major limitations that are imposed on architectural projects. In the public sector, the fear of the future user, which is totally unknown, makes it impossible to introduce changes that may affect the way of living standardized. In the case of the private developers, the logic of the market that impoverish housing are imposed to facilitate their assimilation to a consumer object.

The innovation of the development process has been key to work the architecture beyond its formalization. We identify five characteristics of this model that have a direct response in the project: self-promotion, right of use, community life, sustainability and affordability.
The cooperative prioritized making a building with minimal environmental impact, both in its construction and its lifetime. Another basic objective is to eliminate the possibility of energy poverty among its users, which some of them suffered due to the high cost of energy. The initial strategy of the project to reduce energy demand has been the optimization of the program, renouncing the underground car parking, grouping services and reducing the surface of the houses.

The maximum bioclimatic parameters have been introduced to achieve a very passive building, with solutions that involve active action by users in the climate management of housing. The result is almost zero energy consumption, and therefore, the comfort in the houses with the least associated cost.

The structure of six floors is done using Cross Laminated Timber wood (CLT). This is a lightweight, high quality, renewable material in the environment that allows closing cycles, unlike conventional construction materials such as steel or concrete, whose production has a very high energy cost and are not renewable. La Borda is currently the highest building constructed using wood structure in Spain.