based on briefContext and urban integration In order to analyze the single buildings and the surrounding area it is important to understand the main idea that inspired the project and the sought connections between the context and the project area. The lot of intervention has a triangular shape and fits into a context that presents two sides with residential, industrial and commercial buildings, while, on the west side, the area that will host the new linear park will be open and free of buildings. Such area will benefit from the open west side and will fit like a missing piece in the urbanization plan defined from the existing buildings. It has been decided to create a green space, “large square” to create a space of connection between the new proposal and the existing buildings and to gradually bring the district to the new linear park, especially allowing the Barò of Viver to directly facing the green. The existing buildings in the area will not exceed five floors and the architectures featuring the area can surely be considered that of the neighborhood Vivier de Barò since the others are not defined by buildings but hosts a commercial center, an industrial area and a park. The heights of the new buildings respect the existing neighborhood that lead the number of floors of the new area with the only significant exception of the commercial tower that reaches 24 floors. The small residential towers on the side of the industrial district are comprised between 5 and 7 floors. The residential buildings have more than 5 floors while the residence for the elderly does not exceed 4. Both the houses, essential and new, are placed in the southern part of the area, close to the shopping center La Maquinista and next to the bridge connecting the district to the Sant Andreu area, and next to the linear park. The new residential houses of 5 floors, are placed directly facing the linear park in order to allow a direct access and have a better view. In the back, near the industrial area of Bòn Pastor, the essential 7-floors houses are located so that the upper floors can benefit from the view of the linear park. The northern part of the lot is more akin to a triangle and will host the large square, the business and commercial tower and the housing for the elderly. The residence for the elderly people was placed, on the one hand, right next to the commercial tower and at the linear park, and on the other hand, next to the large square. This will provide older people the opportunity of a simple movement to reach the heart of the neighborhood defined by the great public spaces, where the mall is also understood in such way.
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tower - elevations
© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
The tower representing the cornerstone of the entire project defines the theme that inspires the other buildings. The call to the colors of the Gaudi’s ceramics of Barcelona identifies a nautical style with its imposing shape of a sail. The tower recalls and connects the other types of buildings: the residences for the elderly have the typical colors of Barcelona; the houses, with their essential dynamism, recall the waves, while the use of typical materials of the sea (walls and wood) make them look like small fishermen’s houses in compared to entire plant of the project; the new residences reminiscent of the pottery are arranged to give a motion, typical of Gaudi’s architecture, which is perceived walking between the buildings. The area of the large square is composed of three parts. The first one is completely green, with trees, and represents the true heart of the district. This space is in the middle of all the zones of the project and even of the existing buildings. It is also located directly on the area that has been left free for the auditorium, the exhibition space and the local facilities that will be built. The northern part of this green space has a blade of water that serves as rainwater collection, for recycling water in the tower. The flooring will be made of local stone, such as the squares in Gracia with shiny stones in gray natural colors. An exit volume is located from the public underground car park and then directly connected with the outside area. In this way, this square will be needed also for the underground parking users. At the northwest corner, on the tip of the triangle another piece of land will be part of the square that is a flat lawn that become a kind of small hill sloping towards the main part of the large square. This inclination allows to look to the existing neighborhood and at the same time hides the entrance passage to the underground parking that comes on the back, building in this way a real green barrier.
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sketch
© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
The different areas of the district will be identified as follows: • the residence for the elderly will be the Colored blocks • the essential residences with their shape are defined as Waves • the new residences are the Gaudi’s boats • the tower is also called Gaudi’s sail The road system has been integrated into the already complex system of existing roads. The road system involves the pedestrian areas and the roads for vehicles because both, although sometimes opposed, start at some key elements that are joined. First of all, the river Besòs, area of significant value, has in the vicinity of the lot, at Calle Tucuman’s end, a sports hall close to the new residential area. Here comes the need for keep the axis defined by the new linear park project that diverts the existing road in creating a sort of extension of Calle Tucuman. The continuation of this road so, defines a visual telescope that directly connects the river to the new linear park. Indeed, in the pedestrian paths, the corner overlooking along this new path is the same plaza hosting the main green. Then, the existing vehicular traffic remains the same while it has been added a local road providing access to the various residences, (essential and new), and from North to South connecting the large square with the mall the Maquinista. The green system grows into the large main square, as explained before, connecting every part of the new proposal. There are 4 major green corridors. The first one leads from the main square towards the park through the commercial tower and residences for the elderly, becoming the first connecting passage even for the existing residences in the neighborhood of Bon Pastor. The second corridor connects the main large square with the shopping center Maquinista and grows linearly from North to South. This passage is located between the small towers of essential buildings but it is open to the public. Buildings in the plan are very small, giving the feeling of being in a park in a small village. The third and the fourth corridor are connected between them and forming a “X”. An axis starts from the second green corridor, near the mall, and get approximately in the linear park. The fourth intersects with the third and that corridor is the FabLab: from the bridge that joins the linear park and Maquinista direct to the area left free for the local facilities and attached to the main square green. This path is both a park, and a simple pedestrian link, and also a showcase for the FabLab. Many trees have been arranged within the proposal and will be planted throughout the project high trunk trees, privileging the species of plane trees.
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board 1
© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
The differences between the various buildings help to identify and give a sense of uniqueness to the structures and then to residents. The dynamism defined by the arrangement of the buildings is not predictable and maintains that sense of wonder of the walks in the center of Barcelona. The residential area, for example, is a large garden with roads in motion where doing shopping, enjoying a coffee or just using the green grass to relax watching the FabLab work. Everything has been designed to be totally sustainable. The tower and the essential residences have rainwater tanks that can be used to collect and re-use water to perform the primary functions of the building. Each building has solar panels for hot water production. The materials are completely eco-friendly: wood and white photo catalytic concrete that keep it-self clean without maintenance. The tower is only partially glazed and is screen in a mirror and opposite way to provide air circulation. The layout of the buildings has been conceived to ensure maximum hygrothermal comfort respecting the sun. The area has been designed to maintain its functionality even without the element of the tower that could be built at a later stage or that could even be replaced by a green park that would continue and bring closer the linear park district.
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board 2
© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
The entire city of Barcelona has a complex planning diversification of housing types, shapes and spaces. It goes from single-family residences to the towers placed along the coast but also within the city. There are neighborhoods such as the Gothic and Raval, it ranges for development with streets in and a chessboard shape with the rounded corners of the buildings, to real open areas lined with high-rise buildings just. Finding a point of reference for choosing building types is not simple. Looking at the map of Barcelona you can see many blue spots representing pools of different smaller areas of buildings. Barcelona is a city at seaside, very hot in summer, while from spring to late autumn the temperature allows to take advantage of the pools. For this reason the houses, including those for elderly, have been provided with pools . The pools of have been placed on the roofs to permit to appreciate the view from all the sides exploiting the highest position of the lot compared with those in proximity. These sides are the great future linear park, the river, the mountains behind and, above all, the most characteristic element of Barcelona, the sea. All the new and essential housing will be provided with underground parking and cellars. In particular, you can see the ramp leading to the underground parking in the various residences, usually in conjunction with building’s access and parking at ground level. In addition, the tower and the elderly residence will fall below a large 4-storey underground car park connected outward by various ramps. These ramps are located two near the southwest corner of the lot, one to the east and the largest main entrance on the west screened by the green descent. This one will be a parking as well access for not residents, who want to go to the linear park. All the external paving will be made of local stone with natural grey colors. The green space is a sum of many spaces. First of all it is composed from the main green square, centre of the whole project, then the 4 corridors and last the green slope in front of the tower. All of those will be part od the complex green system that will cross the entire project. In addition a bycile path will cross the whole area and it will be made of whashed concrete sand-colored.
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board 3
© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
VIVIENDAS new housing It has been chosen to distribute the new residences in order to take advantage of sun exposure having all the apartments exposed, not only to north and south also to the east and west. Their location also allows all the apartments to enjoy the view of the linear park that otherwise would have been screened. It therefore form a visual pathway that brings with the view to the open space of the surrounding area. The structures were designed with a module that is repeated for 7 times. This module has been designed to ensure to all the residents a view without facing each other’s buildings. On the contrary, the movement of the buildings enables every resident to have no one in front. This movement also provides a sense of motion to the whole structure that looks in this way broken and discontinuous, relieving the impact that otherwise one uniform body would have given. The area seems to be composed of many houses joined together by the rooftops without being a huge block of social housing. All business activities are connected with the side that faces directly on the road.
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plan
© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
The structures are simple white concrete parallelepipeds with overhanging balconies, parapets made of wood and square windows placed in a non-linear and non-repetitive way. The walls that are completely closed are drawn by blue ceramics, such as those of Gaudi’s Casa Batlò and those commonly used on the white walls in the houses on the seaside. This pattern will be shown in a recurrent way even in the commercial tower. The module consists of three elements: a rectangle internal linear and shapes similar to a “L”. Each L and half of the rectangle are connected by a vertical connections consisting of a staircase and an elevator. In the whole, there are two vertical links. Each vertical connections per floor has 4 apartments. Totally a module has 8 apartments per floor. The idea is to give more possible choice to the users, so for each module and on each floor there are 8 different types of apartments. This avoids the monotony of identical houses, and buyers will have the possibility to choice their apartment between various sizes. Each building has 5 floors. Two staircases arrive on the roof of each module and there are pools placed on it that can be used by residents of the building (40 apartments per module). Each module has a roof swimming pool for resident use. The FabLab are fully glazed to allow the outside people to see the work inside, as well as artistic activities such as manufacturing or design. These activities require large spaces for which it was created quite free areas. The roofs of the FabLab are made of wood. At the base of the buildings there is a variety of elements. First of all, there are the spaces for the hall of the buildings providing a connection to the staircases. There are also shops located close to the sidewalks directly related to external roads to be visible and usable in a simple way. Some stores are located directly in front of the linear park, others in front of the shopping center Maquinista. You will find also spaces dedicated to manufacturing laboratories and local productions as well as the residences of artists namely the FabLab. These are directly accessible from the outside and they will all be connected to each other through a green corridor on which they will face. The green corridor will be their garden, for all the residents’ use. This corridor will take the side of the Maquinista corner and the bridge directly to the heart of the new the neighborhood, the green square in front of the local facilities and the auditorium (space left free for now). This corridor intersects with another passage that cuts it to a X. This green path is formed by spaces that are left free of buildings on the ground floor. It then becomes a sort of tunnel leading from the shopping center in the South side to the linear park and close to the residences for the elderly.
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© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
DOTACIONAL essential housing The essential houses are located close to the new housing and are connected to an area specifically left free for local facilities such as the auditorium, etc… These houses are placed in an apparently disorderly manner and with different rotations so as not to have a structure in plant knitted orthogonal but to ensure the possibility of overlooking and views completely different for each dwelling. The residential blocks are placed next to roads such as driveways so as to create two rows of housing. Among them is left a public green space that will be used by residents and will be appropriately studied with ground level architectural lighting to draw walks, even at night, as well as other green paths of the area. This corridor will serve as to get to the local facilities directly from the commercial centre Maquinista. Each building has a staircase and an elevator, and a dumping, which will be collected. The buildings have 4 identical apartments on each floor of 50 sqm (47sqm internal and 5 sqm balcony counted to the 50%). They are placed to never let the overlooking of the apartments overlaps. The apartments have one double bedroom, a bathroom, a living room and an open kitchen. On the ground floor there are common areas such as the laundry, the multipurpose room and the collective space. The collective spaces have wide glass wall and face the green corridor between the buildings. Materials used for these buildings are once again: wood, white concrete and also will be applied to the structure a vertical green which will clad the walls of the ground floor and the exterior of the body lifts. These buildings will be higher than 9 floors. The top 4 floors are smaller than the base, because it comes to lose one apartment per floor until reaching the last level that will have only one dwelling. In return, these plans may take advantage of the coverage of the plan that lacks which will be a green roof. The green roofs will help to prevent heat loss and at the same time, in the summer, the excessive sun radiation. For this reason they can be considered part of the system of sustainable support of these buildings. Another element is the collection of rainwater for the reuse in the building. This will happen trough a specially designed tank that will be placed on the roof of the higher apartment. The roof that brings from the exit of the staircase to the inspection of the water tank is covered with solar panels. The vertical connection element have a wood cladding, so that wood plus the green walls will recall a tree image. The wood element will be the same that is used for the new residential housing just in front of these builidings. The elevation will appear dynamics and with many and wide glass windows. Each building will have at the ground level its own parking space and the ramp that will connect to the underground parking.
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© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
EDIFICIO DE EQUIPAMIENTO services building Part of the area, where the tower and the large green square are, it is included the residence for the elderly. The decision to separate this from the area below, has born from the will to collimate the dwellings in a unique space and wants to bring it near to the parts that are definitely more usable by elderly people who will reside there. In fact, in this way, the elderly, in addition to their residence they would have in walking distance the mall of the tower and the large green square. The services building is composed by 3 modules and a base, on the ground floor, which includes common areas such as laundry, multipurpose room, workshops spaces, but also the offices and reception. In addition, the ground floor has several rooms suitable for disabled guests, as its respect the required normative standards. Each module consists of 3 elements, square in plan, for the bedrooms. Each of the two outer elements, have 4 double rooms per floor while the central one has 4 single rooms. To join these “squares” there are two separate elements of connection that in addition to the general distribution corridor will have, one, the staircase and the elevator, and the other one will be made of the shared kitchen and the common living room. This it is repeat for each floor. The elderly in this way will be the focus of the entire project, with a luxury residence that will offer all the comforts, including a swimming pool for summer time. Furthermore, in this way you will lose the sense of disorientation and monotonicity typical of these residences but rather give people a sense of belonging and individuality. The “square” are differentiated from each other by the different colors of the exterior plasters. The colors are 3 and then each module has one of these colors: yellow, orange, and blue, in the same shade of ceramic coating as the one of the tower and the housing’s white walls. The main entrance to the building is from the south side and it is a glazed wall that separate the exterior from the reception hall of the residence: in front of the main access to the building there will be a triangular square
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© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
TORRE the tower When you finally reach the tip of the North, next to the large public garden square, you may see the tower. Like the Barcelona’s tower which are around an average of 25/29 floors, this is a 24-storey building. This building recalls the shape of a sail, an element reminiscent of the sea. The property is easily impressed with its shape which reduces in top and with the covering ceramic like the house Batlò. Even the colors recall the sea: white concrete has been used, as well as the blue ceramics and just in the top, some will be yellow to recall the color of the sun, are all elements which bring back to the fishermen’s houses near the beaches. The commercial tower is divided into several parts, but the main is the commercial center of the first 6 floors. From the first to the third floor plan shape of the tower is wider and the third floor, in addition to the Mall, hosts two restaurants / bars overlooking the large terrace supporting the downhill green. This terrace will have a view over the linear park. The floors of the mall have escalators with double heights and have been also identified areas predisposed for the toilets. At the third floor a kitchen has been prepared for the restaurants. For these 3 floors there are 2 core with elevators and emergency stairs, which connect also plans to underground parking. From 4th to 24th floor, the plan sizes of the tower decreases to become a rectangle, with a single central core and the functions that gradually alternate. On the ground floor, the mall has an access from the main square and one in the south in front of the residence for the elderly. It will be a separate entrance that connects to the offices and the upper floors as those with the restaurant and the gym. The floors from 7th to 11th and from 15th to 21th are offices, the 12th and 13th floors are for the gym, the 14th floor is for the mechanical plants for the building, while from 22th are there are the bar, the public library, a restaurant with Southern sea views, and finally a green roof terrace which is accessed via a independent staircase located in the north – west side of the building. The green roof on the top is a suitable place where reading, a green public space where eating, drinking, having a break, resting and spending time. Next to it there is a space where to store the machine that clean the glazed wall and for the mechanical plants.
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© Chiara Luchino . Published on December 18, 2013.
The tower is completely sustainable: a water tank is placed under the blade of water at the ground level in the square. The rainwater will be collected in order to complete the functions of water in the tower. One side (the one exposed to the South) is covered by a cladding of solar panels that may be cleaned using their own service balconies for the maintenance. On the other side, in the other “sail”, there is a public terrace that could be used from the people. This terraces will have a green barrier made from plants and vegetation that will look like a vertical continuation of the green below. This barrier will limit also the light that will enter in the building. The main access to the public parking space is located behind the tower on the West side. There are 4 floors of parking below the whole plaza. In the front of the tower, on the North side, the green slopes leave the possibility so seat and observe the neighbooord. This slope is used in the meantime to hide the entrance to the underground parking. The cycle track in front of the tower has a big parking area for the bicycles.