‘Accessible, not speculative’:

Barcelona housing co-op wins

architecture award
Stephen Burgen

A Barcelona housing co-operative that had been in existence less

than a year when Spain imposed one of Europe’s toughest
lockdowns has won a prestigious architecture award after its model
of community living thrived during the pandemic.

The wood-framed La Borda scheme of 28 apartments and several

shared spaces has won the prestigious Mies van der Rohe prize for
emerging architecture for a project that the awards committee
described as “a transgressive … model based on co-ownership and
co-management of shared resources and capacities”.

The occupants had been there barely a year when lockdown came,
which was when the communal plan of the building really came into
its own, says Cristina Gamboa, a leading figure in the field of
sustainability who, with Pol Massoni, was the principal architect.

Once it became clear that none of the occupants had Covid it was
possible to make use of the shared spaces – including a kitchen-
dining area, laundry, multipurpose space, guest rooms as well as a
patio, bike parking and terraces – to minimise the sort of isolation
suffered by people in more conventional housing.
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 Shared spaces include a kitchen-dining area, laundry, multipurpose space, guest rooms as well as a
patio, bike parking and terraces. Photograph: lvaro Valdecanto

“It was a privilege to live through Covid here,” Gamboa says. “It
showed that these spaces allow for the sort of interaction that
wouldn’t be possible in a conventional apartment block. For example,
the guest rooms couldn’t be used because no one was travelling so
they became work spaces.”

Unlike the experiments in communal living in London squats such as

St Agnes Place and Villa Road in the 1980s and 90s, which were
carried out in family houses, La Borda is designed with the collective
in mind.

Since Covid restrictions were lifted, every Wednesday about two-

thirds of the occupants have been meeting for dinner in the
communal dining room.

“La Borda is exemplary in terms of design for home-based work, a

rare thing in social housing,” says Frances Holliss, architect and
author of Beyond Live/Work: the Architecture of Home-based Work.
“Homes can be expanded to include a workspace – on a different
floor, if preferred. The building is designed at every turn to increase
social interactions and build community, which reduces social
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 isolation – the bane of the home-based worker.”

The La Borda project emerged from a local campaign to reclaim the

abandoned industrial complex at Can Batlló in the Sants area of the
city for use by the community, which in turned spawned Lacol, a
collective of young architects interested in developing participative
projects.

Inspired by housing schemes in Denmark and Uruguay, as well as

figures from the 1970s such as the Belgian architect Lucien Kroll,
Gamboa and her colleagues at Lacol were motivated by three
principles: sustainability, participation and community.

The timber construction allows the flats to be adaptable while also improving insulation and minimising
environmental impact. Photograph: see data fields

“Our model is for accessible, not speculative housing, but we also

wanted to create something easy to replicate, not a closed
community,” says Gamboa, who lives in the building.

The design, with its large internal patio and light well, harks back to
the “corral” concept common in Madrid and southern Spain, where
the central space serves as both a meeting place and natural air
conditioning.
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 The timber construction allows the flats to be adaptable while also
improving insulation and minimising environmental impact.

“It’s a passive building with active participants,” Gamboa says.

Co-op members, who range from people in their 20s to retirees,

don’t own their flats, nor can they sell or pass them on. Rent and
living costs are about 30-35% below market rates.

Solar panels supply electricity to communal areas while a shared

laundry keeps bills lower and frees up living space.

Prospective members pay a refundable fee of €18,500 (£15,485) but

with 50 people already on the waiting list, Gamboa says the only
solution is to build more.

Only 1.5% of Barcelona’s housing stock is public and the rest is

increasingly out of reach of most pockets, especially the young, with
the result that around 80% of 18- to 30-year-olds still live with their
parents.

Gamboa says winning the Mies van der Rohe award was a surprise,
adding that “it’s great to see other ways of doing architecture
receiving recognition”.

Some of the €20,000 prize money will go towards a celebratory

dinner for the occupants and others involved in bringing the project
to fruition.

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