Sustainable Urban planning
CReDITS
Site: Amposta. Tarragona
Client: COAC
Year of project: 2004
Areas: 7.000m2 and 2.5Ha
location
DESCRIPtion
The Catalan government and the Association of Architects organised a major tender for establishing areas for future housing in three zones of Catalonia, encompassing a total number of 400.000 envisaged dwellings with construction planned for 2010. The area in Amposta seemed suggestive because of the protection of the Delta and indeed we noted that the large plot chosen was on the edge of the built-up areas on the old canal of Charles III which linked Amposta with Sant Carles de la Rápita. For this tender we worked on areas of sustainability from varying levels: the flexible nature of the dwellings, the maximal use passive energies, grouping of dwellings making use of the landscape of the canals and the lagoons which also produced passive energies. Based on the scale of the landscape and the arrangement of the complex, the design further dealt with the study on a convertible model of dwelling adaptable to various stages of family life, as well as the potential for reuse as a working area. The idea of creating compact groups with a huge range of uses made it possible to preserve disused areas that we earmarked for rice fields. In addition to being linked to La Rápita, the revitalised canal of Charles III was also a means of public transport.
