La Scala

PROJECT BRIEF

"La ScalA seeks to combine urban integration, design quality and affordable housing “. This is how the architects, Marina del Mármol, Mauro Bravo (MARMOLBRAVO) Miguel Herráiz and Daniel Bergman (MADhel) describe this building project.

The project includes a hundred social housing units distributed over nine floors, with fragmented volumes, the main objective of which is to improve the interior quality of the dwellings. As the architects explain, "Achieving a welcoming building is based on the following steps: First, by building on the permitted third of the porticoed ground floor. Secondly, by taking advantage of the building depth. This allows us to reduce the height from 9 to 4 floors in part of the building. Thirdly, by creating the sensation of diversity thanks to three open courtyards and by contrasting the façade finish between the boundary façades and the recessed façades". An excellent work that seeks to adapt the volume to the surroundings by staggering the building, thus breaking the sensation of the compact block and reducing its scale.

Architectural Features

The result: a meandering floor plan with three open courtyards that allows the building to concentrate a greater amount of floor space on the first four floors and gradually release the volume on the upper floors. The use of large glazed openings has also reinforced the sensation of continuity and extension of the dwellings towards the exterior. Access to the dwellings is through a single communication nucleus that functions as an open corridor with views to the exterior and acts as a meeting place for the users.

The design of the garden is influenced by the volumetry and the introduction of three courtyards, as well as the treatment of colour and facade materials.

The ground floor flats have been fitted with LUMEAL XXL sliders in order to make the most of natural light, with NOTEAL solar protection louvres, which also offer greater privacy.

The rest of the openings have been resolved with the minimum version of the SOLEAL 65 range of casements, where the clip-on glazing bead subtly highlights the window vent, giving the window frames a contemporary design. A solution with high thermal and acoustic performance.