Architects

Location
Area
Project Year

OAB + Pen Architects

Valencia, SpainArchitectsOAB + Pen Architects
24022.0 sqm
2010

From the architect. The modification of the partial plan chooses two areas from
the access to torrent from Valencia
Attention to scale, both urban and metropolitan, the Parc Central Social Housing
Building reorganizes volumetry and is built on the basis of the ownership struc
ture, proposing a crescent with 4 needles and also a civic center with 3 asymmet
rical towers
The building revolves around an inner courtyard, the common axis of life, and th
e majority of homes are internal with membranes of thermic regulation.
The development of the urban experience, created with the municipality, implies
lots of promoters and builders.
The city is built through collective effort, respect, and continued negotiation

PROJECTS
STUDIO
REFERENCE
en
es
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Photo: Diego Opazo
Photo: Diego Opazo
Photo: Diego Opazo
+Multi Housing / 135 Social Housing in M17 Torrent Parc Centralx
STATEMENTDATABIBLIOGRAPHYMAP
135 Social Housing in M17 Torrent Parc Central
AREA
24.000 m
ARCHITECTS
Carlos Ferrater
Xavier Mart
Alberto Pen
Project: 2004-Construction: 2007-2010
Torrent. Valencia,Spain
Planning
The new access to the town of Torrent is the object of an ambitious urban plan p
romoted by the municipal concern Nous Espais and articulated around a park and a
sports facility. On the heels of an earlier development, the neighborhood that
gives shape to it is the object of a modification of volumetries and heights at
two strategically chosen points, points that are subsequently developed by the s
ame technical team in the shape of two public housing interventions.
With this intervention public housing acquires an iconic status through urban pl

anning, as does the architecture thanks to the joint efforts of the administrati
on and private initiative. The subordination of the architecture to the paramete
rs indicated in the plan, which extend to materiality and constructional detail,
permits the construction of a coherent town with a clear, unitary identity.
Morphology
With this ambition in mind, the crescent-shaped area opposite the park radially
organizes the four city blocks, each with an area of some 5,000 m2, inscribed wi
thin four 100 meter-side equilateral triangles. The block that accommodates the
135 council apartments (M17) has a volumetry that is clearly differentiated and
hierarchized. While to the rear the circular street invites an irregular, low-ri
se layout, as in the two longitudinal arms, its vertex points towards the park a
nd is built with a tapering stand-alone tower of 15 floors. The access to Torren
t is transformed into a highly visible local reference with its four arrises, 50
m high and 60 cm thick, illuminated with LEDs at night, and the four public squ
ares that lie at its feet. The attention given to this twin scale is present thr
oughout the project design. The three free-standing blocks that make up the tria
ngle have a double bottom floor, two further stories and a tiered attic.
Ultimately, a clear, recognizable geometry is the tool that defines the volumes
and provides the rigor and unity the urban intervention calls for.
A place for communal living
The reliance on an inner courtyard arises naturally from the morphology of the c
ity block. All the accesses to the apartments, as well as to the two floors of u
nderground parking, are produced from that space. The handling of the latter dif
ferentiates the areas of circulation and repose from the natural and play areas.
Paving of yellow sandstone or asphalt speckled with limestone aggregate, populu
s alba and prunnus pisardi trees aligned on a bank that incorporates the ventila
tion of the parking lot, groups of agapanthus with diverse blooms, two play area
s, and a careful study of the items of street furniture (like the cortatub lightin
g conceived especially for this project) are the features with which the interio
r garden is configured. A linear portico provides shade and delimits a space for
tarrying in, acting as a visual plinth to the curved block and as a horizontal
counterpoint to the inner arista of the tower. All in all, an empty space is con
figured that is conceived for reinforcing the communal use of the area, a place
for meeting, playing and getting along in.
Typology
The geometry of the tower allows the development potential to be integrated with
a minimum presence in the vertices. Its elongated shape oscillates between 60 c
m wide at the tip, which, through its triangular terraces, increases to a width
of 18.5 m in the middle. Four apartments are set out on each floor, each with 3
or 4 bedrooms distributed symmetrically from the center. Given their size, the l
iving rooms incorporate the kitchen area and absorb the irregularity of the floo
r plan by extending to a triangular terrace taking in views of the irrigated hue
rta of Valencia to the north and El Vedat mountain to the south. A detail in the
direction of the profiles of the handrails enables these views to be optimized
from within by said handrails being placed parallel to the walls and not in the
direction of the terraces. Meanwhile, the rooms are laid out in a regular, longi
tudinal way behind a geometrical heat-controlled gallery to which all have acces
s, thus forming a double circulation space. On the inner side the wet area bands
take in the elevators and the two stairwells, which provide ventilation through
the aforesaid galleries.
The low-rises evolve typologies in extraordinarily effective 12 m blocks. All th
ese contain heat- and solar-regulation buffers in both faades. The layout of the
vertical communication cores favors central access to the housing types and maxi
mum reduction of the circulation systems. Around them are grouped, in strict lin
ear form, the wet area band which separates the sleeping area, with bedrooms giv
ing onto the street, from the living area, with living rooms and kitchens facing
the inner courtyard. A protective layer of panels perforated according to orien
tation and height integrates and conceals certain installation elements.
The duplexes allow for a reasonable rounding off of the high-rise volume, withou
t elevator exits and integrating, in an orderly fashion, all the dynamic ventila

tion systems of the bathrooms. In these apartments all the rooms, including the
bathrooms and circulations systems, ventilate or are lit directly outwards.
Construction
The building systems employed have their starting point in the optimization and
improvement of those habitually used in the sector. A traditional construction b
ased on a unidirectional structure implemented with screens in the high-rise tow
er and a known materiality with contrasting behavior in the components with more
functional requirements such as aluminum window frames, microgram terrazzo floo
ring or ceramic facings. However, the leading role is taken by industrialized sy
stems such as the GFRC panels, whose great size has to do with the scale of the
design. Their easy assembly is speedy and cheap, especially for high-rise buildi
ngs, and their manufacturing process confers lightness and is shrink-proof. Trea
tment with silicate mineral paint is an aid to lasting durability and easy maint
enance, which redounds in the useful life of the building.
Sustainability
The attention given to sustainability in the project as a whole proceeds from th
e concept of economic sustainability, which is present in all the different stag
es and scales of the design process, from its actual execution to the systems of
pneumatic rubbish collection. The stated criteria of urban homogeneity as well
as attention to the saving of electricity for lighting and the low outward emis
sion of radiation hint at the use of white as the project s main color. Moreover,
absolute priority has been given to the double orientation and cross-ventilation
of the apartments, with a consequent bearing on issues of passive climate contr
ol.
Finally, relying on the municipal authorities to promote cutting-edge architectu
re as a flagship of their social policymaking is given material form in a novel
architectural design, due to its typological and morphological optimization as w
ell as for the conviviality of accessible building systems using state-of-the-ar
t materials and installation systems. The project for these 135 local authority
apartments acts as a beacon in the landscape, as a catalyst to the next chapter
in the urban and social invention of Torrent. As of now its most significant epi
sode is the finalizing of the civic and commercial center and of the tower of 23
stories foreseen for 2012, which will go to form the urban entity. The municipa
lity s public housing policy thus becomes the motive force driving the creation of
the new town.