La Balma: Articulating Three Different Social Spheres

laboqueria, LaCol, Middle Density, Politics and economics, Project, Topics, Urban Paradigms

Affordable Housing, Barcelona, Circulation, Collaborative work, Collective housing, Collective identity, Comfort, Community, Cooperation, Cross Laminated Timber, Designing Strategies, Environmental, Flexibility, Health, Neighborhood, Political & Economic Approach, Project, Public Space, Social ecosystem, Social housing, Spain, Timber Structure, Wood

La Balma is a project by the cooperative Sostre Cívic, which was awarded the Poblenou plot in the first public tender allocating municipal land for cooperative rental housing. The project seeks to expand the stock of affordable housing to offset the escalation of prices in recent years. Taking into account the available resources, the focus is on the initial cost of construction and the building’s use throughout its lifespan, thinking about the final economic impact for the user. In addition, the building aims to avoid energy poverty by reducing the cost of climatization by more than 50%.