Sestao is a town located on the left bank near the mouth of the Bilbao estuary. A town marked by the presence of heavy industry, the La Naval shipyard and the current Arcelor Mittal steelworks, heir to Altos Hornos de Vizcaya.
The occupation of the riverbank platform by the industrial fabric is completed in a complex orography with the extension of the urban fabric from the same industrial edge up the slope. In the area closest to the industry known as Txabarri, constructions of workers' housing from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century are mixed with blocks of development from the 70s/80s. This area is the result of an urban regeneration program.
In this context is the building of 15 social housing units.
A small plot adjoining an 8-story block, with a frontage on the street in its southwest alignment, opposite front to the interior of the block and a third façade to a newly created pedestrian walkway to give access to the redeveloped center of the block recovered as a public space.
The plot is part of the steep urban slope facing the estuary. So there are two floors between its opposite facades.
The PERI ordinances establish certain limitations for the block:
_natural stone plinth
_high volume of light colours
_balconies prohibited on upper floors
_obligation of viewing points
Given the condition of the site, where the ground floor and two lower floors below ground level emerge on the opposite façade towards the interior of the block, we proposed placing housing on all floors. The dwellings are designed in accordance with the VPO design ordinances of 2009 (prior to the current habitability decree).
The services and facilities are grouped around the vertical core.
There are no abutments between units.
The front facades are resolved by means of a single viewing point. While the façade facing the side alley is more aseptic, with serial openings. The façades facing the street and the block are the same, only the plinth that makes contact with the ground changes.
Mainly to combine its best features with an image that is truly an interpretation of the 'classic' viewing point. Slender, with a high degree of glazed surface, ribbed, with a high degree of practicality.
A thorough study of the profiles, the modulation, the introduction of colour and the superposition of elements solve not only the technical but also the aesthetic issues of this main element of the façade.
Aluminium profiles with colour change of beading
Exterior substructure for fixing protections
Awnings and railings on the outside
Combination of transparent and striped glass.
Blackout curtains on the inside
The modulation of the carpentry coincides with the interior partitions.
This makes the viewing point function as a curtain wall in front of the rooms.
Or as a balcony. The high degree of openings with which the viewing point is provided aims to resolve the relationship of the house with the outside. The house opens widely to the panoramic view of the surroundings. The rooms are sized to the minimum standard.
The presence of the viewing point together with the insertion of sliding doors at the meeting of interior divisions and façade expands the perception of space. The connection of the programme rooms located on the façade by means of the sliding door gives spaciousness to the space. And in the case of the large unit, it facilitates the flexible use of the central room/bedroom. And it introduces ring circulation into the house.
Although the houses are compartmentalised, the location of the facilities and structure at their extreme vertices makes them reconfigurable in the future.
In general terms, the criteria for the composition of the volume are very classic.
Beyond respecting the issues of colour and certain materials such as natural stone in the plinth, the aim is for the composition itself to link with the character of the pre-existing buildings. Without falling into pastiche.
The materials used are simple. Typical of the definition of public residential architecture.