Spain’s largest residential complex with a wooden structure

The social housing building designed by Peris + Toral Arquitectes in the municipality of Cornellà de Llobregat near Barcelona is a hymn to sustainability and flexibility, starting with the efficiency of the production process and the use of natural local materials and ending with a study of the interior layout designed to maximise the variability of use of spaces according to the different, changing needs of users.

The building, organised around a central courtyard which acts as the “epicentre” of community life, houses 85 social housing units on five floors and is characterised by a load-bearing wooden structure supported by a concrete portico on the ground floor, where the shops and public spaces are located.

The use of structural timber – 8,300 square metres of wood sourced from the neighbouring forests of the Basque Country – and therefore of a “dry” construction technology has allowed considerable industrialisation of the construction, with significant savings in terms of time, costs and CO2 emissions, and greater control over the quality of construction.

The vertical distribution blocks are concentrated in the four corners of the courtyard and lead to the internal terraces, overlooking the courtyard, from which the flats are accessed. Inside the apartments, all of which have a double façade that favours natural cross-ventilation, the distribution is organised in communicating rooms without the traditional corridors, so as to make full use of the surface area; the open kitchen, located in the central part, acts as a distributive element to the other rooms, which can accommodate two or three bedrooms; the absence of a predetermined function, thanks to the use of a point structure that allows a free plan, offers maximum adaptability in the arrangement of the spaces.
The interiors are characterised by an essential but domestic and welcoming atmosphere, thanks to the warmth of the natural wood panelling and the pastel tones of the finishes, which accentuate the spatiality and brightness of the rooms.

The work is a finalist in the Architecture category of the Mies van der Rohe Award 2022.