Park Living. Low-rise Housing

On the one hand we have the concept, the theme: the transition between private and public through greenery. In the area of study we found different approaches — the house directly faces the street with a climbing plant on the façade as its only filter, the house is preceded by a frontyard, or a backyard is preceded by a communitarian semi-public green space. These levels of transition are also associated with how people relate to each other: from the non-relationship, through the relationship with the neighbour, to the creation of a community. On the other hand we have the context. Analysing the area we saw no connection between neighbourhoods, a great deal of green space without dimension between the towers and the slabs, and a border between these and the green space caused by the roads.

With our proposal we want to complete and unify the lines formed by the towers and the slabs with low-rise housing, so that they work as one entity. But at the same time it is important to maintain the idea of living in a park, as the area is today. We consider that the site belongs to the park and not to the city, which is why we add a new typology — the low-rise housing — instead of repeating the existing ones. In addition, to make sure the park atmosphere is not distorted, the houses are conceived more as furniture than as buildings, allowing the vegetation to surround and take them over.

This proposal solves the disconnection between the two neighbourhoods and also creates community between the people who already live there and the new ones, thanks to the common spaces we create. The different typologies of this low-rise housing respond, too, to the different needs of society today.