Cornellà de Llobregat, in Barcelona, is rolling out an active social housing policy that combines sustainability and design with a focus on the well-being and quality of life of its residents, reflecting the principles of the European New Bauhaus initiative. This is the 2020-2030 Municipal Housing Plan, which aims to facilitate access for young people and vulnerable social groups.
To date, one of the most notable social housing developments is an 85-apartment building located at Avenida de la República Argentina 21 in the town. Its construction was completed in 2021 by the Catalan firm Peris+Toral Arquitectes.
Its design, based on a zero-kilometer wooden structure, was awarded the 2021 Architecture Prize by the Higher Council of Architects of Spain (CSCAE). More recently, the Royal Institute of British Architects awarded it the RIBA International Prize 2024. It was also a finalist for the 2021 Mies van der Rohe Award.
The project combines architectural quality, environmental focus, and resource optimization, as well as neighborhood coexistence and inclusivity, thanks to its organization around a community courtyard.
Connecting rooms. Space and versatility
The building’s layout is based on “connecting rooms” rather than corridors. This means that all the usable space is devoted to living areas. Each of the structure’s five floors contains 114 rooms connected to each other in sequence. This strategy is unusual in social housing and turns a set of rooms into equivalent elements, not constrained by a hierarchy.
Furthermore, they are not designed as bedrooms, living rooms, or studies, which avoids rigid compartmentalization. This approach enhances versatility, responding to diverse families and changing situations, such as teleworking, caregiving, and intergenerational cohabitation. In this sense, the kitchen is positioned as the central room, making domestic work visible and preventing it from being relegated to a secondary space. This situation can generate greater sensitivity towards collaborative models.
Cross ventilation and dual orientation
Each dwelling has both, as they open simultaneously onto the interior courtyard, which also functions as a communal square, and onto the exterior façade. The result is superior environmental performance without additional technological costs, thanks to the architecture itself.
The building has an A energy rating and primary energy consumption has been reduced to 20 kWh/m² per year. In this regard, it is essential to understand the composition and cladding of the exterior façade, which faces the terrace and is covered by several meshes that protect from the sun’s rays and ensure the privacy of the neighborhood.
For its part, the interior courtyard, with its vegetation, promotes a microclimate that, like the façade, reduces the temperature by several degrees.
Innovative social housing typology
This circumstance, which is favorable for sustainability and well-being, is combined with a reduction in CO2 emissions thanks to the use of wood as the main material. All the rooms are made from locally sourced wood from the Basque Country and recycled aggregate materials, which reduces the building’s carbon footprint by up to 55% compared to an equivalent conventional building.
Wood also promotes hygrothermal regulation, reduces the weight of the structure and therefore requires less foundation work, and reduces construction time. These characteristics justify the international interest it has received, essentially because of
- respond to contemporary social and climate needs;
- avoid costly technological solutions;
- be based on a highly efficient plant;
- promote community life and gender equality;
- be replicable in various urban contexts.
