COMPETITION – 15 Council Flats

     In 2005 the Junta de Andalusia (the Andalusian Regional Government) launched an architectural competition for young architects to design fifteen council flats and associated private, communal and public spaces in Huelva.
At MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos we believe that habitat is just as important, if not more important, than habitation: the spatial, social and cultural filter in which we relate with each other and represent ourselves.

     The brief included designing 15 council flats and their associated private, comunal and public spaces functioning as a supporting structure for the integral production of habitat. In our proposal we ensured that the the transition from public to private spaces takes place via gradients of communal or collective spaces equipped with vegetation, shade, seating areas and playgrounds in order to guarantee this process.

     An ample entrance connects the inner courtyard with the nearby public spaces. On the ground floor the courtyard is elevated with a covered seating area to avoid the look and feel of a well and it incorporates a children’s playground and abundant vegetation. The collective space on the first floor opens our onto the street and one side of the courtyard looks out onto the outside world. The double-height collective space on the second and third floor looks out at the street. In this way it creates a relationship between the interior and exterior allowing for natural ventilation.

     “The empty spaces, depending on their potential, have been converted into spaces that form part of a large communal house or receptacles or spatial translations of new social habits” (Manuel Delgado, sociologist).

     MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos designed a wide and light-filled courtyard with a wall of wide steps used as a seating area and vegetation in order to soften the galleries, passageways and communal areas. We used jasmin to the south, ivy to the north and lemon trees to perfume and add a little flavour to the council flats.

     Our proposal was made up of eight three-bedroom apartments and seven two-bedroom apartments. These two-bedroom apartments are potentially extendable to three-bedrooms. When designing the proposal we used 7 x 10 m2 from each of the two-bedroom apartments and used this space for the creation of communal areas. Depending on supply and demand, public interest and will, these spaces are negotiable. The loss of the communal areas would mean the extending of the two-bedroom apartments to three bedroom apartments and thus an increase in their built area.

     In our proposal we included commercial premises on the ground floor as well as parking spaces and storage space in the basement.

     Given the shape of the plot we proposed building six meters deep apartments in which the main rooms are directly connected with the street via wooden shutters filtering views and sun exposure.

     The spaces are made flexible using mobile dividing walls and optional improvements that can be put in place in the future: a play room, studio, internet area, living room or a covered balcony; kitchens and wash rooms are ideally oriented to the south; two fully-equipped bathrooms would better the quality of the apartment and are located in a functional band situated next to the inner façade of each of the apartments.

     At MEDIOMUNDO arquitectos we designed a façade with a notable urban character. The tension between both the interior and exterior and the dividing walls and the corners creates a fragmented exterior that creates an unexpected composition of light and shadow.

     The location of the various elements that make up the façade create variable width spaces, both protected and open, that can be used as terraces or interior and exterior gardens or even spaces for locating instalations. They combine to form a filter that connects the building visually with the exterior.