Diagonal Bilbao Housing

The project comprises two buildings (PB+6) of 42 and 27 dwellings, with exterior facades facing Bilbao Street and Avenida Diagonal de Barcelona, respectively. The new buildings consist of housing units, commercial spaces on the ground floor and parking and storage rooms in the basement.

The design of the two buildings follows the forms of Cerdà’s historic Ensanche, in respect for the mandatory alignments and for complying with the proposed urban planning parameters. The textures and materials of the panels used on the exterior facade, as well as the color of the jambs and lintels, aim to give this typical volumetry an image more in line with the time and the environment that emerges around it.

The buildings are constructed with a concrete structure and waffle slab. The genesis of both buildings is identical, as well as the compositional criteria in both facades, in which deep and wide cantilevered balconies with almost nonexistent railings dominate.

Lightweight Fibre C concrete panels have been used on the façade facing the street. The cladding of the slab edges and lintels is made of gray pre-painted aluminum sheeting, while the jambs are clad in orange sheeting, contrasting with the more neutral black precast concrete panels. In this way, the openings are emphasized. On the other hand, the facade towards the interior of the block is resolved with continuous balconies along its entire length. A double sliding curtain in white lacquered micro-perforated and corrugated aluminum sheeting provides a suggestive play of superimpositions to the courtyard enclosures.