NAME
Project title: 45 Industrialised social housing units
Recommending party
The project has been submitted by:
EXE Arquitectura
05_45 Industrialised social housing units | EXE Arquitectura
COMMUNAL / TYPOLOGICAL APPROACH
D – DETAILS – DATI
Plot area – Superficie lotto: mq 654
Gross Area – Superficie lorda totale: mq 4475
Of which
residential – Di cui Residenziale: 66 %
Public/communal areas – Spazi collettivi/comuni: 30 %
Facilities for the public – Attrezzature pubbliche: 4%
Business/trade – Commerciale: 0
Offices – Uffici: 0
Number of residential units – Numero di alloggi: 45
Typology of users – Tipologia di utenti: Families
Total building costs Euros – Costo di costruzione totale in Euro: 5.246.986 €
Building Cost = Total Bulding Cost / Gross Area – Costo di costruzione = Costo di costruzione totale /Superficie lorda totale: 1.173 €
Floor area ratio = Gross Area / Plot Area – Densità = Superficie lorda totale /Superficie lotto: 7
Work started on date – Data inizio lavori: 03/03/2023
Work completion date – Data ultimazione lavori: 06/06/2024
E – OWNERSHIP – PROPRIETA’
Promoter – Promotore
IMHAB (Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i la Rehabilitació de Barcelona)
Allotment rule – Regola di assegnazione:
Assignement
Reduction cost percentege compared to the market value – Percentuale di riduzione di costo rispetto al valore di mercato:
52
GENERAL PLANS – PLANS
G – CANDIDATURE REPORT – RELAZIONE DI CANDIDATURA
ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY | SOSTENIBILITÀ ECONOMICA
The project costs below Spain’s 2024 average of 2,265 €/m². Prefabricated 3D modules, efficient planning, and optimized materials cut costs while delivering 45 flexible units, communal spaces, and sustainable, fast construction.
Rental/sale cost compared to market price
Costo di affitto/ vendita rispetto al mercato
The project offers rents and sales below Barcelona’s 2024 averages. Families sign 75-year (extendable 15) surface rights contracts, paying mortgage fees similar to protected rent, ensuring affordable, sustainable, and energy-efficient social housing.
TYPOLOGIES
SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY – SOSTENIBILITÀ SOCIALE
Rules of allocation – Regole di assegnazione
Allocation in the project follows public housing rules: priority is given to low-income families, eligibility is assessed through official rankings, and rents are reduced below market rates to ensure affordability and social access.
Protection of fragile categories
Tutela categorie fragili
The project is primarily intended for low-income families, without being limited to specific vulnerable groups such as immigrants, students, or single mothers, although these groups may also benefit under public housing eligibility criteria.
Involvement of inhabitants in the building process – Coinvolgimento degli abitanti nel processo
In the project, future residents were not involved in the design phase; the process followed public housing rules and focused on creating affordable, flexible, and sustainable living spaces for the community.
Community accompaniment in the life of the building – Accompagnamento della comunità nella vita dell’edificio
The project includes community-oriented design features, such as elevated walkways and shared spaces, that encourage interaction and support among residents, fostering social connections and a sense of belonging throughout the building’s life.
SIGNIFICANT SECTIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
SOSTENIBILITÀ AMBIENTALE:
Functional mixitè – Mix funzionale
It includes additional functions such as communal areas on the ground floor and roof, multi-purpose rooms, gardens and terraces. These spaces foster social interaction, community life, and enhance the quality of housing beyond private dwellings.
Common spaces and shared living – Spazi comuni e abitare condiviso
The project features elevated exterior walkways connecting the dwellings, functioning as extensions of private homes. These spaces promote neighbor interaction, creating semi-public areas that enhance community life.
Techniques and strategies for environmental saving:
The project addresses sustainability via bioclimatic design, LED lighting, aerothermal and photovoltaic systems, prefabricated modules to reduce waste, and energy-efficient installations, achieving near-zero consumption of non-renewable energy.
The project involves the construction of 45 social housing units, each with two bedrooms, distributed within an eight-storey building covering a total area of 4.465 m², with communal facilities on the ground floor.
Industrial environment and adaptability
The proposal is conceived as a residential building understood as a habitable infrastructure with a clear and modulated structure, a prefabricated 3D modular construction that allows flexible use with possible changes in the future. The architectural proposal enters into dialogue with the existing textile factory, with a characteristic industrial architectural language.
Community transition
A gradient is established from the main road, the passageway, the entrance porch and the access walkways to the dwellings, which are understood as ‘elevated exterior passages’, resolving the transition between the community and the dwelling. The walkways fulfil the dual function of filtering the accesses to the dwellings and strengthening relations between neighbours through the appropriation of these intermediate spaces.
In addition, complementary communal spaces are proposed on the ground floor and roof of the building. These include multi-purpose areas, a large communal terrace with garden areas and shaded spaces for neighbourhood use.
Construction duality
– On-site construction: Foundations and ground floor.
– Off-Site construction: According to the manufacturing company’s own methodology of factory assembled 3D modules, equipped with structure, walls, internal divisions, installations, finishes and equipment.
Time, Cost and Material Optimisation
The structural rationality of the layout distribution and the spans to be covered led to the choice of a portico-like structures with concrete pillars and lightweight reinforced concrete slabs.
The project consisted of a total of 104 prefabricated 3D modules, which were transported and assembled on site in just 15 days, enabling a significant reduction in construction times. As all building materials are prefabricated, construction times were optimised through precise planning, simultaneous execution with the work on site and minimum displacements. This also helped to reduce construction costs: light structure and reduction of foundations; to improve quality control: factory controls; to reduce environmental impact during construction: optimisation and reduction of waste; to ensure the closure of the life cycle of the materials at the end of the building’s life and to guarantee safety and comfort at work.
The prefabrication of all the elements has guaranteed the execution and durability of the materials. In addition, it allowed the work to be completed in a total time of only 13 months. The operation of the installations has been designed to minimise energy and maintenance costs. The correct functioning of the installations has been tested in the factory, and the modules have been waterproofed at the top to avoid problems during transport and assembly with a heavy-duty mobile crane.
Sustainability
The A-certified building combines passive and active strategies to reduce energy demand and consumption. Its bioclimatic design optimises air conditioning, while efficient systems such as LED lighting, aerothermal and photovoltaic systems are incorporated to achieve near-zero consumption of non-renewable energy.
GALLERY
