The Sant Martí and Sant Andreu districts will soon increase the public housing stock thanks to six new industrialised housing developments. These new projects correspond to the first industrialised housing tender implemented by Barcelona City Council through the Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation (IMHAB) to promote innovative methods in the construction of housing that streamline the expansion of the public stock and, at the same time, contribute to dealing with the climate crisis.
These projects were presented at the Industrialised Production Working Group workshop held on Wednesday 18 May. As well as being a space to share these projects, the meeting also served as the starting point of the industrialised production workshops, which will be held on 21 and 22 July. In attendance were Lucía Martín, Councillor for Housing and Renovation; Daniel López, on behalf of IMHAB Technical Services; Irene Subils, from the Department of Infrastructure and Equipment of Social Rights, and members from three of the four winning teams of the tender. The councillor began the session by assessing the initiative very positively. “These projects result in an improvement to the energy efficiency of the building and also of the construction process, while enabling us to reduce construction times for the crisis we know we are facing in the city and the country.” Next, the members of the winning teams explained each of their projects, the materials used and the main features.
The architects and builders of the developments that will be located on Carrer de Pallars, 477, Carrer de Binèfar, 22, and Passatge d’Arriassa, s/n (La Verneda and La Pau), also attended the workshop to present their projects.
Three sustainable developments
The project on Carrer Pallars, 477 is the work of Constraula and has 42 properties. The building has seven upper storeys as well as a ground floor. The structure of the housing storeys will be made in an industrialised manner using CLT panels, for the horizontal elements such as the frameworks, as well as for the vertical elements, such as the pillars and load-bearing walls. This structure will be supported on the ground floor made from concrete. In general, the project is characterised by a central recess connected to the partition wall that should allow for better energy performance of the building, improving the natural lighting of the properties on the inside of the block and generating cross-ventilation for all the properties, particularly those that are not corner properties. Regarding the properties, the kitchen-dining room is in the centre of the apartment, while the other three parts are distributed in equivalent sizes to allow their adaptation to the different types of family units.
Carrer Binèfar, 22 will be the location of the winning proposal by Grup Mas, with 24 properties. The highlight of this proposal is the complete prefabrication of the wet areas at the workshop, with finished kitchen and bathroom facilities. CLT is the main element of this prefabricated module and of the rest of the structure. The project envisages a building with a ground floor and three upper storeys, each housing eight properties. Access to the properties is envisaged via a walkway on the rear façade, which also opens on to terraces on the main façade, permitting ventilation of each and every one of the properties. The central area of each property is configured as large living and dining areas that communicate with two equal rooms, allowing their use to be interchanged and adapted.
The last development of this tender, which will be on Passatge d’Arraissa, corresponds to Acsa, Obras e Infraestructuras, SAU and has 40 properties. This development will be erected on the extension of the Passatge, so the resulting building is semi-detached, a characteristic that the Acsa proposal plans to surround with terraces both inside and out, where the centre of the building has to house the communication centres. The construction system is based on CLT frameworks and walls, supported by a ground floor made from concrete. The project envisages the construction of eight storeys, with five units per storey. As with the other the projects, the properties have equal-sized rooms around a central kitchen and living space, with all the parts open to exterior terraces or to the central quad with the interior circular walkway. This will be the highest building made from wood in Catalonia.
Industrialised housing, a housing model with many advantages
The construction of industrialised housing is one of the innovative solutions that Barcelona’s Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation is using to guarantee the right to decent housing in the city. It is a model that offers many advantages: it is faster, cheaper, safer and more ecological. It is an innovative solution to improve the whole construction process, energy costs and the consumption of fossil fuels used in traditional construction. Following this construction model, the public stock has 500 properties in 11 developments, from the first APROP experiences to future plans.
In this sense, and as established in the tender specifications, in their construction process, all the proposals share the common factor of reducing the environmental impact associated with the manufacturing of the materials with which future buildings will be constructed. All of this is achieved thanks, on the one hand, to efficient management of the materials through recycled and recyclable elements, and, on the other, to the production in workshops of the structural elements. This permits a lower impact of the works and greater monitoring and quality control in the workshop of the whole construction process. In fact, three of the four proposals with a high score for each of the development proposed the use of CLT, in other words, cross laminated timber, an increasingly popular material due to its sustainability and the reduced environmental impact generated by its production.
Furthermore, the commission combines the drafting of the technical design as well as the manufacturing and construction works of the buildings, in other words, the joint collaborative work between architects, builders and industrialists right from the moment of conception and presentation of the proposals.
In all new public housing production, IMHAB pursues the creation of properties that permit flexibility of use and removal of the hierarchy of spaces, so that the distribution of the spaces prevents the consolidation of gender roles. At the same time, all the properties in these developments will have balconies or terraces and guarantee ventilation, so as to ensure both the quality of construction and the perspectives of the health needs of the people who end up living there.
APROP accommodation, a solution for dealing with the housing crisis
This meeting served as the starting point of the industrialised housing workshops, which will be held on 21 and 22 July. The workshop also included a visit for the first time to the APROP building on Glòries by Irene Subils and Òscar Marin, from the Department of Infrastructure and Equipment for Social Rights, who explained how the project was designed and developed. The APROP property on Glòries will be inaugurated soon. The building has seven storeys, which is the maximum number of containers that can be installed without having to add a reinforced structure. This APROP will give rise to 42 properties, 35 two-bedroomed homes, and 7 one-bedroomed homes. It will also have a 500m2 inner courtyard for use as an urban allotment and the ground floor will house a neighbourhood facility.
The APROP properties form part of a temporary housing construction project to deal with the urgent need for social rent properties quickly. These are fast and sustainable accommodation, as they are built from a structure comprising modules of old, recycled and conditioned shipping containers that are fitted together. As well as Ciutat Vella and Les Glòries, there is a third tendered APROP property at La Bordeta.