Designed by MiAS Architectes, Topographically, the pentagonal site is on a slope. The property proposes for the site, surrounded by other housing projects, housing on the upper floors of the building, shops and public services on the ground floor and parking in basement floors. The building wants to be the volumetric reference of the object of the competition and the specific urban development of this area, as well as the public space that is defined by the development of this planning.
photography by © Adrià Goula
The building is developed at different levels with a U-shaped volume in a plan, in a trapezoidal form in which it is confined. The project faces the eucalyptus square, so that part of the ground floor not occupied by the building is an extension of the square itself. Instead, the boundary with Sant Feliu de Codines street is through the northwest facade with a height of 31 meters, it clearly defines the street, differentiating public and private space. The generic plan layout is four apartments per level, although, in the last two, there are only two apartments per floor. The application of volume occupancy rate, according to the program, occurs by its progressive reduction in height.
The project intends for the volume to be read as an entity, not manifesting the levels which it consists of. For this reason, we opt for a formalization of the facades and windows not as a stack but as a continuity. From the square, the volume only hints at the access courtyard, the facade produces slight movements of the enclosure to insinuate, blur, offer Trompe-l’oeil… With regards to lighting and ventilation, the layout of the apartments around the open courtyard and with the same perimeter of the facade makes it very efficient.
photography by © Adrià Goula
Project Info:
Architects: MiAS Architectes
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Project Area: 5000 sqm
Project Year: 2012
Photographs: Adrià Goula
Project Name: Collective Housing in Baró Tower
