El edificio de 44 viviendas VPO en Tauste (Zaragoza), publicado en la revista de arquitectura coreana «c3», nº 325.
Korean architectural publication «c3» features the 44 Social Housing in Tauste (Zaragoza) in its 325 issue.
Extracts of the text «Domestic Landscapes», written by Marco Atzori:
«Housing and Urban Landscape.
Social Housing is a complex field of research in architecture today, specially given the use to which architects are now seeking to put the discipline as a tool in unvestigating changes in contemporary society. In the most advanced case studies and projects the most interesting phenomenon seens to be the envolving interpretation by architects of the combination of a functional program with an intention to emphasize the processes marking the interaction between the object, the city and lanscape scales. In fact, in analyzing the 7 projects here proposed, we note the presence of a component (related to the scale) that converts all into landscape projects: They are all systems able to take architecture beyond the status of mere object, making it a tool for changing the urban landscape.
(…) As the same time the works of Garduño arquitectos, Magén Arquitectos, ZigZag Arquitectura and Frédéric Schlachet Architecte enphasize relationships with the void as they create new hierarchies in the use of the city¨s public and semipublic spaces. In this way the new forms of dwellings and social housing are among the most important parameters in understanding how the contemporary city works.
(…) 44 Social Housing_Magén Arquitectos
The project of Magen Arquitectos appears as a large block in black and white, with black stripes marking the perimeter with a clear U shape. At first sight the design solution seems to privilege a classic typological scheme aimed to set the building on the edge of the site so as to create a vacuum within that becomes a private space. However, as pointed out by these architects, the project;s intention is to create connections between the urban public space and the private (or perhaps semipublic) space. In this context, the most interesting dimension of the project emerges. Beyond the formal aspects of the object, the architectural and urban composition of which is considered and balanced , it is the vacuum reading that is most fascinating. This void is in fact a place of transition and connection between parts of the urban fabric and, at the same time, a private space within the building. To achieve this effect, the architects have suspended the volume that marks the entrance to the courtyard, in this way highlighting the visual perspective so as to create an inmediately perceptible acces that draws the outside space inside the block. Thus, in the courtyard two different levels of use overlap: the external flow of people moving into the city, and the use of that space as a common court for the units that constitute the block of collective dwellings. It is therefore a meeting place within the city, a small square whose contours are visible, and through which the urban scale is rendered smaller. It is at the same time a site of relationship, which allows the residential space to expand outside and facilitate a social life for the inhabitants. The continuity of the block on the remaining parts of the perimeter enhances a perception of a secure location within the city that promotes its use as a public space, a dimension which is largely missing outside the perimeter. (….)»
More information: www.c3p.kr