The building is located in the town of Gandia with 75,000 inhabitants, where the first university appeared in the 15th century. The new hybrid residential complex serves two purposes at once: it functions as a hostel for students and, at the same time, satisfies the city's need for social housing. The building houses 102 apartments for young people and 40 apartments for pensioners, as well as a community center.
From a programmatic point of view, the key challenge for the architect in this project was the placement of shared areas for young tenants. According to the Spanish National Housing Plan, apartments should be 30-45 m2, up to 20% of which is shared space. However, in this plan, there is no indication of where and how these spaces should be located.
The architect was interested in the opportunity to provide residents with as many resources as possible through the sharing of premises. The organization of common areas serves to extract the maximum value from a minimum of funds. That is, as conceived by Guayart and his bureau, it meets the principle of doing more with less.
Analyzing the basic functions of the dwelling, the architects identified for themselves those types of human activities that can occur in public or are joint in nature - eating, working at the computer or doing laundry - and proposed to plan common areas on three different scales.
“If we build 102 apartments of 45 m2 each, where 20% of the area will be shared by the tenants, we will have up to 918 m2 of common space,” said Guallart Architects. “It can be designed as 51 shared premises, 18 m2 each (one for two apartments, each of which gives 9 m2), or as a single 918 m2 space for the entire residential complex."
The Bureau has put forward an original model of a "three-tier" organization of public areas. The first, individual level, is a 36 m2 area that encompasses the kitchen, bathroom and relaxation space in a loft apartment. The second, intermediate, level is spaces of 108, 72, 36, 24 and 12 m2, which are shared by 18, 12, 6, 4 or 2 people. Such rooms are repeated across the floor and include a living room, areas for communication and work. The next step on the scale is a common area of 306 m2 on the ground floor, which is shared by all student residents. It consists of a salon, laundry, library and internet corner.
