The winning project in the architecture competition for public housing and the urbanisation of the Jardí de l’Alzina, in the Vila de Gràcia neighbourhood, opens up a new space for people to pass through and becomes part of the urban corridor formed by the squares of Diamant and Virreina. The project includes the construction of 15 homes with services and a facility to be used as a centre for the elderly, conserving the iconic façade of the old houses in C/ Encarnació and adding a new four-floor structure four metres back from the façade.
A winning project has now been confirmed in the competition to create public houses with services and urbanise the former homes known as the Casetes d’Encarnació, on the corner with C/ Manrique de Lara, in the Vila de Gràcia neighbourhood. Under the slogan “La Plaça del Quercus”, the IMHAB Encarnació joint venture envisages a new public square around the two-hundred-year-old tree, creating more spaces and renewing the area for the public to use in this part of the neighbourhood, and also becoming part of the corridor formed by the iconic squares of Virreina and Diamant.
Gràcia gains a new public square
The new open square will establish a new route from C/ Montmany to C/ Manrique de Lara, with the holm oak gaining new centrality and visibility, without the current walls of the former houses which at present enclose the Jardí de l’Alzina. The configuration of the whole area is shaped by the new square, taking a rectangular form with the longest side bordering C/ Manrique de Lara and the short side bordering C/ Encarnació. The goal is to clear buildings from the space recommended for conserving the roots of the bicentenary tree. The square will have a soft surface, the idea being for it to be 100% draining, allowing rainwater to filter through. The project keeps the existing trees, besides the holm oak, and adds native species of vegetation with no irrigation demands. The rainwater collection systems, coupled with this xeriscaping, is intended to create a garden with no external watering needs.
Conserving the façade of the Casetes de l’Encarnació
The new building will be aligned with the current façade, which must be conserved according to the competition. The new construction of 15 homes with services and a centre for the elderly on the ground floor will consist of the ground floor and three upper floors, four metres back for the current façade of the houses, which will keep their current height of two floors. The configuration of the square and the building will also allow for different entrances to the homes and the facility, with the entrance to the homes at the far end of the side nearest the mountains in the new Plaça de l’Alzina, from C/ Manrique de Lara, while the railed entrance in C/ Encarnació provides access to the centre of the elderly.
The First Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing, Laia Bonet, made a positive assessment of the Casetes d’Encarnació opening up to the neighbourhood: “With this architecture competition we respond to two needs, of protecting the natural and architectural heritage of Gràcia and helping it to endure, with the holm oak and the houses, and of making this heritage accessible, with a new square and a new facility”. The Deputy Mayor, also the Councillor for Gràcia, noted too that “it is vital to gain public housing in a dense and consolidated environment like the Vila de Gràcia, where all options need to be taken advantage of to boost the public housing stock”.
In this respect, the Commissioner for Housing, Joan Ramon Riera, noted that “Barcelona City Council is working to be able to construct and renovate public and protected housing in all possible ways, all over the city”. “Housing is the number one priority for the municipal government, and we are putting every effort into boosting the availability of affordable housing so that nobody has to leave the city to realise their life projects” he affirmed.
What will the 15 homes with services be like?
As for the homes, all of these will have two bedrooms of equal dimensions, offering greater flexibility and adaptation for different types of family units, known as the dehierarchisation of housing. The building will have different communal spaces for residents to use, promoting interaction, an inner yard with bike parking, a communal terrace on the first floor and access walkways to the homes. The building will be a single compact construction, oriented towards the south-west and the north-east for good cross-ventilation, sun and natural light in all flats.
With the competition resolved, now comes the drafting of the basic project and the final project, the urban planning process for a new plan suited to the configuration proposed in the winning project and then the tendering procedure for the work. The final project will define the investment needed for the construction of the homes and the provision is that work will be able to start at the end of this term of office.