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Architects: CRAFT Arquitectos
- Area: 3500 m²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Carlos Figueroa, Jaime Navarro
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Manufacturers: Comex, Firenze, GAIA, Helvex, Ikapali, La nueva avenida, Mexico Solar, Mitsubishi Electric, Porcelanite, Simon, Tecnolite
Text description provided by the architects. NIU (nest in Catalan) evokes the creation of community within the space where one lives. This 4-level building with 54 housing cells is not a traditional residential project, it applies a model designed to share and cohabit in spaces created in search of developing human activity for a new generation of citizens who are looking for a place that gives them a sense of "belonging". The conceptual axis of the project is to generate complete habitable cells (a fully furnished space with a bathroom, kitchen-dining room, closet, bedroom and living room with all the services included) that allows its inhabitants to have privacy and independence in a building that favors belonging to something bigger: a community of diverse people, who share compatible interests and ways of living. That is why the architectural program is enriched with a variety of common spaces: co-working, gym, playroom, podcasts room, two roof gardens where there are recreational activities, meeting rooms and cafeteria.
The architectural project was born from the intervention of a residential building from the 60s in the Narvarte neighborhood. The original building respects the main longitudinal and transverse structural axes, the circulation spaces and the original façade modulation that is intervened only by intentionally opening openings. The original 90m2 apartment space is reconfigured into two complete 45m2 living cells. The original nucleus of stairs is eliminated, and they are placed in a linear way within the circulation space, which allows access to the last of the apartments and has the finish of natural light in the corridors. NIU responds to the needs of inhabiting new generations, where sustainability is an important factor; the building does not have parking spaces because it favors the use of collective means of transport and with less environmental impact such as bicycles, it has solar panels that use its energy to heat water and is committed to the recovery of its original building.
The objective of the project is to respect the memory of the old building starting from a city that has already been adequately built and as a conscious exercise in adaptive reuse for this type of existing building in use, maintaining many of its original qualities, but transforming it into a vibrant space to live looking for ways to add and give new life to the historic neighborhoods of the city, generating a new sense of community and contributing to the urban fabric. “Now more than ever before, the rehabilitation and recovery of constructed buildings is a central issue. Rehabilitation is always more sustainable than any new way of building.” Alan Rahmane The space in which one lives significantly defines the way in which a lifestyle is lived, in which the exchange of experiences and sustainability are fundamental pillars. Niu seeks to create this necessary feeling of cohabitation, the conceptual argument and the execution of the architectural project are designed and built to share experiences within a community.
