Urban living
Bon Pastor Apartment Block in Barcelona by Peris + Toral
© José Hevia
Intermediate areas galore behind brick facades: With its courtyards, loggias and terraces, the Bon Pastor apartment block by Peris + Toral at the east of Barcelona offers a living quality similar to that in the century-old row houses it has replaced.
© José Hevia
When the Bon Pastor estate incorporating over 700 "casas baratas" – literally "cheap houses" – came about at Rio Besos in 1929, it was not yet even part of Barcelona. The single-storey houses along the estate's narrow streets lived up to their name, being provided with barely 40 m² in living space.
As the decades passed, the district fell more and more into neglect and thus a few years back the city decided to rehabilitate it, complete with demolition of the small houses and relocation of the inhabitants to new apartment blocks built in their place. In their design, Peris + Toral sought to revive the community lifestyle that once pertained on and along the streets of Bon Pastor, now however in different form. To this end they gave the block various intermediate spaces and also made a point of providing all apartments with natural light and fresh air from both sides, as also would apply to row houses.
© José Hevia
Non-enclosed stairways
In the six-floor apartment block, five staircases each provide access to two apartments per storey. Only at the southern end there are three, so that two living units open up there to the south. From the street at the west, long entrance courtyards lead to the elevators and staircases and small garden courts allocated to the ground floor apartments are to be found on both sides of the entrances. On the opposite side of the building, all apartments and circulation areas open up towards the green space at the river.
© José Hevia
Widely varying brick facades
This open character is not immediately evident, however, as porous brickwork of perforated blocks conceals the non-enclosed staircases, the terraces fronting the living rooms and the ground floor light shafts that carry natural light down to the underground car park. The only elements on the river facade to deviate from the homogeneous brick shell specified in the development plan consist of the apartments' narrow steel balconies with their trellises.
© José Hevia
On the entrance side the architects used solid rather than perforated brick, but even here the facades are articulated by small loggias fronting the bedrooms. The dwellings run through the building from east to west and feature free-standing bathrooms that enable circulation on both sides – all further measures for enhancing the provision of natural light and cross-ventilation within the apartment house.
Architecture: Peris + Toral Arquitectes, L3J Técnics Associats
Client: IMHAB. Instituto Municipal de la Vivienda de Barcelona
Location: Carrer Camarasa, 13, 08030 Barcelona (ES)
Structural engineering & Building services engineering: 3J Tècnics Associats
Site management: Joan March i Raurell
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