Social Housing in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid | sonia villaseca

Set in a new urban masterplan, Espartales Norte, in half of an already occupied lot, a building with 123 housing units, 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms in an U shape building.

A U shape concrete structure, 8 and 6 floors above ground, 2 floors below ground,  house the residential programme with 10 vertical communication cores. Different communal spaces conform the interior courtyard, like a children´s playgound area, an outdoor swimming pool, a ´paddle ´tennis court and an underground car park, helping the socialization of the different neighbours.

A grey mosaic-like continous skin envelops the private resting areas which open to the interior common courtyard. Skin made of an external wall insulation system finished with an organic, cement free, render. The exernal facades, protecting the building from the streets, rest on a gound floor prefabricated concrete grooved panels. From these panels the organic white render systems grows vertically, pierced by a series of terraces protected by orange glass balustrades.

The overall strategy for the development of this project is to use the very restricted budget to give the users spaces with a double facade orientation, free of cold bridges, with interesting common spaces.

The works finished during the Covid-19 pandemic, struggling in the last months due to the restrictions.