Barcelona, Spain
Employing passive energy strategies and using materials with the least environmental impact, the Lepanto Project by Felipe Pich-Aguilera PichArchitects/Pich-Aguilera provides a new concept for living and working together in a dense, urban context such as this one in Barcelona.
The Lepanto project is a building for housing and workspaces, which proposes new ways of living and working in urban centres, actively integrating into the local community.
The building incorporates passive strategies to improve comfort and seeks to reduce the impact of the work through dry construction, reduced consumption of materials, and the use of resources with the least environmental impact.
The project completes a small urban void, within a significantly deteriorated old building.
The plot is narrow and irregular, with the typical characteristics of the Ensanche neighborhood of Barcelona – density, great depth between party walls, interior patio with lights, uniformity of the cornice level, and alignment of the façade.
These urban conditions have shaped a characteristic personality of the neighborhood, which the designers transferred to their project, adapting to the circumstances of the current time.
The main objective of the building is to foster a community that lives and works in it.
The program is structured around a staircase and a central patio, which serves two living units on each landing, with flexible typologies that favor very diverse uses.
On the roof, there is a living space with direct views of the Sagrada Familia.
The ground floor, attic, and semi-basement are common workspaces for residents and non-residents of the building, and the basement has a communal service area.
The main façade is made up of precast concrete panels, stained and stripped, which achieve in an industrial way the ancient artisan tradition of “sgraffito” stucco, so present in the memory of the city.
The very typology of the building works as a whole as a basic bioclimatic system: Inertial slabs; a continuous well-insulated envelope; solar modulation in the openings; and a central patio proportioned to activate the transversal ventilation of the rooms and their diffused lighting.
All housing units are designed to make the most of the breeze through an interior patio that promotes cross ventilation.
The windows are designed to let in as much natural lighting as possible, taking into account the necessary solar protection to avoid direct radiation in summer without compromising the views to the outside.
Most of the construction components are assembled and removable.
Throughout the entire project, the materials used have the least environmental impact, avoiding finishes, promoting certificates of origin, and recycled materials, analyzing their complete life cycle, as well as the potential management of their disassembly.
Project: Lepanto Project
Architects: PichArchitects/Pich-Aguilera
Lead Architect: Felipe Pich-Aguilera
Project Manager: VIU Lepanto
Construction: Grup Mas
Environmental Impact Certification and Monitoring: Energreen Design
Client: VIU Coliving & Coworking
Photographer: Antonio Navarro Wijkmark
