Sotrac

2020 — on-going

Location La

Sants - Montjuïc

Carrer de la Constitució, 43

Developer

Sotrac SCCL / La Dinamo Fundació

Architects

Lacol

Collaborations

Societat Orgànica, PAuS (Dani Calatayud and Coque Claret), M7 Enginyers, Arkenova, Arrevolt, Miguel Nevado and Àurea Acústica Programme

38 residential units with spaces for community use and a space for the social economy and solidarity

Design 2020

Surface area 3,596 m2

Construction Estimate (Hard Costs)

€4,400,000

The Sotrac housing cooperative won a public tender organized by the Barcelona City Council in 2020 to develop plots reserved for cooperative housing. The lot is part of the Can Batlló complex and is just 100 meters from La Borda. The building will have 38 units distributed over six stories, one of which will adopt a ‘cluster’ format, plus several community spaces and a space intended for a project related to the social economy and solidarity.

All the units are meant to have the same orientation (south-southwest) in order to provide equal interiorexterior and visual conditions, a close connection to the park, maximum solar capture conditions, and adequate cross ventilation. The areas with worse orientation are allocated for vertical circulations and complementary spaces.

The ground floor aims to act as an infrastructure that can remain partially open to the neighbourhood; it the most public space in the building and where most of the community spaces are located. There are several types of community spaces according to their degree of openness to the neighbourhood: the main entrances, the kitchen-dining room, a multi-purpose space, and a more domestic zone for children or for use as a workspace.

The design of the building takes into account universal accessibility, inclusivity and the gender perspective both in the private living spaces and in the different community spaces.

Flexibility of the building and new residential models

All the units are floor-through with direct access from a walkway in the courtyard and large terraces facing the park. Units of different sizes and varying morphologies are designed to meet the needs of the different co-living groups.

Satellite rooms

Satellite rooms are introduced to provide a greater degree of flexibility: two per floor, for a total of 10. These self-contained rooms, equipped with shared or private bathrooms, make it possible to expanded or reduce the different residential units in a discontinuous way, offering possibilities for a wide variety of uses: working from home, added autonomy for seniors or teenagers, play spaces or study spaces for children, guest rooms for relatives or friends, etc.

The cluster

Additionally, one of the residential floors is allocated for a cluster, an innovative type of housing design and distribution, seen in community projects in countries like Switzerland, Germany and Austria. In this housing model, a series of small living spaces are grouped around shared spaces (kitchen, dining room and reading/workspace) to further promote collective living during everyday activities.