Alborada Residential Building
In the extension of the city of Granada towards the west, the planning has developed an urban growth based on plots of land built in isolated blocks. The continuity of the growing city, contained by the ring road, proposes high-rise blocks on plots of land with green spaces for community recreation. All the neighbouring buildings are configured as compact volumes in which the centrelines are used to the maximum without intermediate meeting spaces and with access distributors to the housing without external lighting. The challenge of this project is to optimise the built surface to the maximum and to introduce the maximum spatial intentionality in the communal routes. In this way, the first strategic design operation consists of grouping the housing in two slender volumes, separating them transversally from each other and shifting them longitudinally to introduce in their intermediate position the access distribution corridors to the housing. These appear as spaces contained between the two longitudinal pieces of housing, always looking towards the horizon, to the south towards the fertile plains of Granada and to the north towards the city. In addition, these corridors hollow out longitudinally, generating double heights that cross transversally, which adds a condition of weightlessness to this access route to each housing. At their ends, these corridors recognise the spatiality of the double height and are shown to the outside through a double storey lattice that changes the domestic scale of the building. To increase the sensation of spatial amplitude in these fissures-corridors, they are clad in a gloss-lacquered white wooden panelling that acts as a mirror, expanding the space horizontally and where a rhythm of matt panels is interspersed in which the access doors to the housing are incorporated.
The second strategy is for each building to have a large overhanging terrace, which is not limited by the roof of the terrace immediately above it. This condition was established after the COVID experience, where there was a shortage of private outdoor terrace space in a block of flats. This is why this project proposes the typological alternation of builing on odd and even floors in order to generate terraces with a double-height roof, creating an alternating staggered façade. This volumetric operation of the alternating terrace overhangs generates a vibration through the shadows and the movement of the overhangs with their front parapets, introducing a character of volumetric abstraction on the background plane of the building.
The typological idea of the house is that the entrance hall separates the day zone from the night zone. The day area revolves around the outdoor terrace, which can be accessed from the living-dining room and the kitchen, with the terrace acting as a catalyst for movements towards the exterior. The night area is organised with a central distributor that separates two bands, the bedroom band with vertical openings in the façade and the bathroom and cleaning room band that remains in the interior. In the inner band of toilets, the cleaning room appears as a wildcard space since, by means of a system of folding doors, this space is enlarged, taking over the corridor.
The main façades of the building receive light from the east and west, with the block oriented longitudinally almost north-south. In this way, the building have almost the same hours of sunlight throughout the day. The openings in the living rooms are recessed a metre and a half into the interior, creating a space for protection from the rain and the sun before the exterior of the façade plane. This gap enhances the terraces and the vertical openings of the bedrooms and kitchens, generating a rhythm and abstraction that moves away from the conventional block of flats. On the other hand, the two parts of the residential programme to the east and west are completely blind on their north and south sides, thus enhancing the fissure of the access corridors to the building and generating an intentional and fictitious image of two independent, slender, displaced buildings.
The communal space providing access to the plot is a gate with a light metal canopy. The gates are configured with a diagonal grid of L-shaped profiles that add vibration to the vision and shadows of the gates. These communal areas are completed with access to the garage below ground level and secluded gardens leading to a swimming pool. The design of the underground car park is developed by means of longitudinal buttressed slabs connected with half ramps at the ends. The garage thus appears as a continuous space that improves visibility, orientation and ventilation.
From a bioclimatic point of view, a building with good thermal inertia is proposed. The exterior sate cladding envelops the entire building, avoiding thermal bridges. The cantilevered terraces are counter-roofed to capture maximum light in the daytime areas of the building (living rooms and kitchens) and the facades on the short north and south sides are blinded to make them more airtight and protect them from heat and cold. These strategies create a low heat energy demand and improve the energy certification by introducing an aerothermal hot water system.
