Social Housing, Alcobendas
Manuel de las Casas 

Social Housing, Alcobendas

Manuel de las Casas 


This housing project won first prize in a competition of design and building teams, in which constructive innovation was an essential premise. The apartment blocks, each with five levels, house four units per floor in a linear scheme, with the majority of the 198 dwellings open to two facades. In order to shorten the period of construction, prefabricated concrete panels were employed in the enclosure, its large scale and meticulously designed joints dividing the facades into a lively pattern. Unity in the whole is obtained by combining the comb-like formation of some of the buildings with the perimetric situation of others, thus visibly closing the site. The importance attributed to the garden and other open spaces is noted in the careful paving and colorist, ceramic tile cladding of the skylights protruding out from the parking garage.