Telde, Gran Canaria, Spain
Overlooking the square on Lola Massieu Street in the city of Telde, Stacked Houses by the design team of Romera Y Ruiz Arquitectos for Cofital Quince S.L. is a 25-unit, sustainable housing project shaped by a series of flexible and light-filtering spaces.
According to famed German architect Gottfried Semper´s classification, stacking is a primitive activity of humans.
This dwelling project follows this principle, built by stacking concrete tubes with an almost square section (3.65 by 3.20 meters).
For its inspired and sustainable design, Stacked Houses has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Each concrete tube contains all the fixed components of each unit, from the most basic systems (water supply, drainage, electricity, ventilation…) to telephone and internet connections.
The idea of a simplified hierarchy and a greater complexity of use (living room-kitchen-dining room) is carried out in each house.
Just as in a game of chess, the interior of a house should be able to accommodate uncertainty.
The outer, more static box leads to interior boxes that adapt according to the required function.
The hierarchy can be separated into two categories: private areas and common areas, the latter being the ones with more alternative uses.
The favorable amount of sunlight in the city of Telde allowed for the design of deep terraces that provide shade, drawing inspiration from the traditional deep roof eaves of Japanese architecture.
The deep terraces act as a brise-soleil allowing glass enclosures.
The house benefits from the direct sunlight that comes in through both façades.
Thanks to its single space, light travels through the entire dwelling reaching the interior patios next to the entrance of each house.
From here, light is scattered through the open corridors that overlook Gofiones Street, enhancing the sensation of submerged linear spaces.
These spaces receive direct light shaded by the vertical, colored concrete diaphragms, tinting the light in different hues throughout the day.
Light also comes from the terrace and the patios and the open corridors in the back.
The luminous permeability also enhances cross-ventilation for the dwellings.
All circulation paths that lead to each house contribute to unaltered privacy through the vertical patios before each entrance.
In the organizational scheme of the residential complex, each house shares a concrete lattice wall with the one next to it.
Each varies between a continuous plane and a perforated wall by way of a viewpoint, seeking greater structural flexibility.
The succession of perforated elements resolves the access, contained between the lattice wall of variable geometry, by means of the so-called “lumiducts,” providing each one with a view of the sky and sunlight.
Horizontal patios, due to their layout and exterior enclosure, are conceived as single spaces.
These patios overlook the Plaza on Lola Massieu Street and become a horizontal projection of the façade.
The clear composition of the façade overlooking the Plaza with five stories and a setback attic also determines the character of the building.
One of the main objectives of this project was to address the needs of the residents as well as the collective recreational activities in the Plaza.
Project: Stacked Houses
Architects: Romera Y Ruiz Arquitectos, SLP
Design Team: Carlota Ardanaz Petit, Yudit Barreto Martín, Paula Cabrera Fry, José M. López Cabrera, Carlos Marrero Macías, Ester Marrero Pérez, and Rosalba Santana González y Carla
Client: Cofital Quince S.L.
General Contractor: Las Maguas 2008. Construcciones S.L.
Photographers: Simón García Asensio
