social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza, spain photo courtesy of roland halbe

magén arquitectos has designed a social housing unit at the urban edge in zaragoza, spain. the project develops a residential programme for social housing units of different types, in a longitudinal building which is staggered into three sections in order to adapt to the steep slope in which it is situated.

on the exterior, the building has a closed, opaque configuration, to discretely integrate itself into its immediate surroundings amongst a group of social homes from the sixties. its outer facades which follow regulatory alignments are configured, according to the window openings and their repetitive manner. these enclosures are constructed with white brick with a base on the ground floor of prefabricated concrete panels. this helps deal with the encounter of the building with the steep slope of the pavement, extending through the access porches and into the interior.

where the building is reduced in height in order to accommodate itself to the sloping land, as well as at the back of the building, there are access porches and hallways which connect the public highway to the interior garden space, where entrances to the residential units are located. here, the public and private spaces cross paths, creating an internal meeting space. the varying levels, both in the access points and interior patio, given the slope of the land, are solved by inclining planes with a gentle slope and access ramps to the front doors.

the building is characterized by a series of broken up sections of wall, defined by a polygon. an undressed structure of slabs and concrete screens create an intermediate space that connects the homes to the exterior. the different guidelines along the facade and the variable positions of the sliding aluminium slat panels, provide movement and alternating views throughout the day.

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragozadetail of the facade photo courtesy of roland halbe

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza photo courtesy of roland halbe

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragozaa look at the access porches of the residential units photo courtesy of roland halbe

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza built on a slope, ramps are used to help deal with this encounter between the building and the land photo courtesy of roland halbe

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza photo courtesy of roland halbe

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza the facade is made up of sliding aluminum slates which can be configured into variable positions photo courtesy of roland halbe

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza photo courtesy of roland halbe

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza aerial view of location

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragozanorthern elevation of the building image courtesy of magén arquitectos magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragozadetail of the northern elevation and the sloping landimage courtesy of magén arquitectos

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza south elevation – inner semi-public spaceimage courtesy of magén arquitectos magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza detail of south elevationimage courtesy of magén arquitectos magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza one section of the housing unitimage courtesy of magén arquitectos

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza typical floor planimage courtesy of magén arquitectos

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza detail of floor planimage courtesy of magén arquitectos

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza ground floor planimage courtesy of magén arquitectos

magen arquitectos: social housing at the urban edge, zaragoza division of housing unitsimage courtesy of magén arquitectos