la floresta

LOCATION: La Floresta, Sant Cugat, Barcelona, Spain

CLIENT: Ajuntament de Sant Cugat

PROGRAM: Social Housing

SIZE: 2400 m²

STATUS: Finalists

TEAM: Alicia Casals, Karl Johan Nyqvist, in collaboration with Vaillo+Irigaray

IMAGES: Big Shot Images

 

The plot is located in a privileged setting of lush nature and small-scale isolated buildings. A set of two buildings connected by a basement is proposed. Adapting to a steep and complex topography results in two terraced volumes that integrate perfectly with the scale of the built environment. By adjusting the height to the natural slope of the land, the aim is to minimize the landscape impact with a compact design and minimal footprint to preserve nature and existing trees as much as possible. The two buildings are organized through two central walkways, each with a single vertical core.

The housing types are repeated vertically and all share the same module, creating an orderly and rational ensemble. Larger homes are strategically placed at corners with double orientations to ensure views and light in all rooms. The flat layout of the homes creates spacious and bright rooms, avoiding the “tunnel” effect of interiors. The absence of circulation spaces optimizes usable surface area. Exteriors consist of a private terrace or courtyard for each unit, along with various community and social spaces: wide access walkways integrated into the intermediate domestic area, green roofs with gardens distributed across levels 3-4-5 and the roof, a central square between the two buildings (the basement roof), and finally the untouched natural forest and garden. The private terraces and courtyards are directly accessible from the living rooms, allowing them to merge into a single space. All rooms, identical in proportion and area, feature large windows and views to the outside, creating a distribution without hierarchy that offers flexibility and adaptability for alternative uses, such as an office.

The combination of passive strategies and active systems addresses the pressing need for energy savings throughout the buildings’ lifespan. Sustainable solutions are prioritized from both environmental and economic perspectives, through the rationality of the installations, the optimal ratio of usable to constructed area, and an industrialized construction method that contributes to higher quality and speed, better cost control, and reduced environmental impact. Despite the fragmented volumetry and formal movement of the proposal, it is resolved with a single repeated model for each housing type, allowing for optimal aggregation and serial construction using lightweight pre-industrialized CLT wood structures