JURY MEMBER
The work done by Equipo BLOQUE Arquitectos goes well beyond the figures of architect and client because it involves transforming into architecture, a vital programme, the Trabensol Cooperative, with all its complexity, internalising its way of understanding communal life where intimacy and cooperation are not in opposition but complementary; old age is faced up to with happiness; and there is a firm commitment to the environment.
Understanding the outer walls of the Centre means understanding the project’s three essential points: Form, Function and Energy.
Form (geometry and appearance) a happy, open and warm building; Function (programme and organisation) a building with a large number of communal zones in closely and progressively related to the private areas of the apartments; Energy (low consumption and environmentally friendly) with a bioclimatic building.
COLOUR
The building must be easy to understand. Intense colours are used for the outer walls that mark the interior use: bright yellows in galleries and corridors, earthy shades are used in the communal buildings and peaceful greys are used for the apartments (the inhabitant chooses the colour).
SPACES AND COMPOSITION OF OUTER WALLS
Intention to give perviousness to the outer walls with constant interior relation making them zones with many large spaces to the south (sheltered), small but constant to the north (more insulation where the sun does not reach) and regular with shutters to the east and west.
A greater sense of perviousness is achieved by breaking down the blind walls into small rectangles with normal range colours but with a different intensity where the windows are fitted.
INSULATION, WALLS AND INERTIA
An Exterior Thermal Insulation System is chosen, the windows being lined with the insulation removing thermal bridges and on thermal clay walls with great insulating properties (thermal and soundproofing) and great thermal inertia.
Furthermore, the powerful synergies created between enclosure (inertia), use of the building (24 hours per day, 365 days per year), air-conditioning system with radiant under-floor heating (working with great inertia) and heat / cold generation with geothermal pumps (optimum performance for great inertia).
Care is taken to the extent that the details are performed with great control over the finish and workers able to take on the challenge of an outer wall fraught with complexities..
A joint project with collaboration in both design and performance that enables one to view with simplicity, happiness and naturalness something that is really highly complex, full of responsibility and has required a great deal of thought..
