First large scale social housing project, part of a government program intended to mitigate the housing shortage caused by waves of immigration from the south of Spain during the sixties. The overriding concern was to prevent the district from becoming a dormitory town by making it multi-functional. The Architect worked with sociologists to analyze the City and elaborate new design principles. Mixing functions like in traditional cities was incorporated as a principle. This broke one of the doctrines of Modern XXth century architecture and opened the way to a new theory about the “city in space”, breathing from futurists, supremalists, minimalists, surrealists, and combining them with regional architecture. Dwellings are mixed with commercial establishments, and large areas are turned into community spaces. There are twelve apartments per floor, arranged geometrically around a patio. Spectacular open air lobbies provide access to the vertical elements—staircases and lifts. Pedestrian public circulation is maintained on all levels. On the fourth floor circulation becomes elevated streets and plazas. Barrio Gaudí was the first attempt to create a new kind of housing complex in which residents, accustomed to living in villages, would become integrated into the city without having to give up their traditional lifestyle.
Status: Built
Location: Reus, ES
