Description

This project description is an excerpt from the longer article “Urban Block Shapers”. For a comparative analysis and further data including accompanying graphs, please see the article “A Turning Point”.

The 138 Villa Olímpica Apartments by Torres & Lapeña along Carrer de Salvador Espriu are distinguished by their prominent circular plaza created by the housing within this seemingly typical perimeter block. The housing complex was laid out as a break in the façade of the street, providing a termination to the diagonal street, Avenida Bogatell, extending through the project via the two pedestrian ramps leading up to the terraced plaza. By deviating from the original block plan, this complex by Torres & Lapeña not only offers a change to the morphology of the block, but also opens up and literally frames a view to the sea. Occupying a site of 1.03 hectares, the project also has a high building intensity with a total built area of 34,911 square meters. Slightly more than half of the built area is taken up by the 138 dwelling units, while 38 percent is given over to parking, and another eight percent is for commercial use on the ground floor encircling the hardscape plaza dotted with palm trees. Carrer de Joan Oliver itself passes under the block that forms a large gateway, much akin to the arcade in the Can Folch Housing by MBM. Raised above grade, the circular block is seven storeys tall while the solitary, crowning tower in the shape of a prow of a ship marking the terminus of the diagonal rises 10 storeys in height. The dwelling units are generally commodious, composed of three- or four-bedroom types, with two units sharing a common access core. In maintaining the coherence of the scheme, Torres & Lapeña have chosen a warm, brown brick palette for the entire complex that resonates with the rest of the seaward façades of the apartment complexes along Carrer de Salvador Espriu. Within the central court, the building façades are splayed in and out slightly, incorporating sliding screens generating a dynamic surface enhanced by the light at different times of the day. This playful surface variation is reflected similarly in the floor plans, revealing a building depth ranging from 11 to 13 meters.

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Originally published in: Peter G. Rowe, Har Ye Kan, Urban Intensities: Contemporary Housing Types and Territories, Birkhäuser, 2014.