Faro, Portugal

HDC in Faro

In a rurality harmoniously conquered by the emering city, Faro presents the challenge of building 5 controlled cost houses in the context of an HDC (Housing Development Contract). Trying to avoid the recurrent language associated to social housing, usually considered marginal, the project calls for integration through valorisation of common public areas that will reproduce sociable attitudes at the local level. The social content of the commercial sports areas combined with the residential complex, establishes the border with the human side of the city, articulating social contact among people.

The same worries that appear in any housing project are In a rurality harmoniously conquered by the emerging city, emerges in Faro the challenge of building 5 houses of controlled costs in a HDC (Housing Development Contract) context. Trying to avoid the recurrent language associated to social housing, usually of discriminating nature, the project appeals for integration through the valorisation of common public areas that will reproduce sociability of a local dimension. The social content of the commercial and sports areas combined with the residential complex, makes the border with the human side of the city, articulating the social contact among people.

The same worries that appear in any housing project are promoted,such as the interior organization of the apartments, the sustainability of the materials, the comfort of the aesthetic options and the conjecture of the accesses. The materials chosen take into account the white tonality of a limestone Algarve, through white plaster, Estremoz stone and gravel. Grey was considered a suitable colour for the base; it composes the double volume of the lateral elevations and gives life to the modular mesh of the fenestrated facades.

The topography marking the lot provides for two floors below ground level which solves the parking and technical areas. Public, green and leisure areas are restored to the quarter in a gesture of functional and continuous outside circulation.

Similar to the programmatic conditions of the 2 and 3 bedrooms houses, the buildings have 6/7 floors, which to the detriment of the desired transverse ventilation determine 4 apartment on each floor as a premeditated measure to improve the quality of space and reduce the vertical communications. All houses located on the ground floor are projected to welcome disabled people or with reduced mobility.

The flexibility resulting from the asymmetric principles congregated by the spans communicates with the surroundings, upholding the ideas of proportion and wholeness, hiding the supposed monolithic image present in the territory.

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HDC in Faro