Low-Cost Housing with a Long Run Focus

By Tyler Silvers

 

The design of mass social housing calls for the use of “low-tech” aspects and certainly a low-cost budget. This simplified style of design forces architects to reach for a new way of thinking (far separated from the stereotypical grandeur often associated with the profession), and challenges designers to incorporate low-cost construction techniques and materials into spaces that provide a maximum quality of occupancy. FOA accepts these challenges in their Carabanchel Housing project for the city of Madrid, Spain, in which the firm synchronizes aspects of the existing site with a focus on low-tech mechanics; all on a low budget.

FOA’s goal throughout the development of this social housing project was to “provide the maximum amount of space, flexibility and quality to the residences,” and designed the complex around the principles of space and light. Throughout the design of the project, FOA is able to integrate the building onto the site in an incredible way; to an astonishing extent. It seems that often, projects that are based on a low-budget fix too closely to what money can buy, focusing on saving money in the short run. Projects that operate on this basis seem to forego aspects that the site itself has to offer (such as sun and wind patterns and building orientation) that can significantly help to lower the cost of operating the maintaining the building in the long run.

 

With their Madrid social housing project, however, FOA integrates the building into the site through the sectional considerations for the design as well as the incorporation of natural exterior materials on the façade. The site leads to the development of a rectangular form oriented along the major axis to the north/south line. To the west of the structure is an existing green space, while the housing complex is surrounded by existing buildings to the north, south, and east. The architects design each apartment unit to include openings on each façade that the unit opens up to (in most cases this is to the east and west). This allows a cross breeze to flow through the units, reducing cooling costs in the summer months, and sunlight to enter the units, notably during the morning and evening hours. To diffuse the harsh, direct sunlight, the architects have designed the housing complex with a double skin with the outermost consisting of bamboo panels. Due to the manner in which bamboo grows, the panels allow sunlight to pass through in an irregular manner and create a natural, diffuse shadow pattern inside each apartment. To help with the facilitation of the cross breeze (as well as with the occupant-specific customization of the spaces), the panels outside each apartment complex are fully operable. The bamboo panels stretch over the façade of the building without interruption (except in the case that some of the panels are open), and give the impression that the structure itself has grown out of the earth. The architect’s use of bamboo as the principle element on the façade of the building situates the building into the context of the site (particularly the existing green space to the west) particularly well.