211 DWELLINGS

YEAR: 2007-2009

CLIENT: NASIPA SL

PLOT: Sector 11, Ibaialde. Salburua. Vitoria-Gasteiz

TEAM: Javier Mozas (co-author), Juanma Galera, Ainhoa del Río, Lorena Díaz de Mendivil, NB35 (estructura), F&B Ingeniería.

AWARDS: Winning project in the Competition of 211 affordable social dwellings in plot M 05 Ibaialde in Salburúa. Vitoria-Gasteiz. 2005

MEMORY:

This project is based on a study of the role of architecture in the creation of urban identity. The uniformity of architectural solutions in European cities is leading to a lack of identification of citizens with their neighbourhood. The loss of identity and the feeling that the periphery of our cities is the same as anywhere else, increases the uneasiness caused by architectural déjà vu.

After the last period, where the uniformity of the Modern Movement has imposed its dominance, there are calls in various forums for picturesqueness, a return to personalisation and identification with the specific and particular values of each neighbourhood. It is a question of recovering, as far as possible and by transposing it to collective housing, the idea of the house as opposed to that of the block.