• In collaboration with Ensenyat-Tarrida + Bayona-Valero + Cantallops-Vicente
• Construction company: SACYR
• Structural engineering: Bernuz Fernández
• Fittings engineering: L3J
• Acoustics engineering: Ivana Rossell
• Sustainability: Societat Organica

Quarter “A” of the Plaza de la Glorias in Barcelona is the result of a competition promoted by Barcelona City Council and executed by the Institut Municipal d’Habitatge de Barcelona (IMHAB) in 2017.

The aftermath of the 2010 financial crisis led to a highly participated competition divided into 4 different residential blocks, commissioned by 4 teams of architects. We were responsible for the project of Block B with a total of 60 social housing units out of a total of 238.

The project resolves the characteristic shape of a residential block in Barcelona’s Eixample, fitting into its peculiar plot, but incorporating the diversity of blocks typical of the city. The blocks are usually made up of a mixture of façades and residential typologies that should be respected here, giving each team of architects the freedom to design within the limits of the complex, respecting pre-established lines of floors heights.

The complex is inserted in the new Parque de Glorias, next to the Mercat dels Encants, a market of medieval origin with a long tradition in the city. The building is subdivided into two sectors, forming a patio between blocks A and B, and another patio between blocks C and D. Between the two sectors, a new street or interior passageway is created, allowing the Glorias Park to cross the building and connect the Market and the Park with the interior life of the residences.

The typologies are mostly apartments with 2 or 3 bedrooms, with access from an open corridor. They have two façades, one facing the street and the other facing the inner courtyard, and are for social rent at affordable prices. Block D are apartments with access via stairwells with two homes per landing and these are for sale at a lower than market price.

The use of the access corridor to the rental apartments allow to connect not only the stairs with each home, but also the residential blocks with each other, generating greater community and interaction with the neighbors of other blocks. This is something unusual in the residential buildings of Barcelona’s blocks. This connection also allows the roofs of the buildings to be shared as public terraces over the interior passage, inviting neighbors to appropriate them and occupy these spaces temporarily.