The main volume, proposed by López Rivera Arquitectos, houses the 18 intergenerational social dwellings distributed across three floors. The second, slimmer and more open volume contains the entrance, the vertical circulation core, and a multipurpose room, along with a communal dining area and kitchen—spaces intended to foster daily interaction.
The north façade incorporates a double-layered thermal clay block wall, while the south façade features solar shading elements and folding glass panels along the gallery. This bioclimatic feature allows for ventilation and the blocking of direct sunlight, or conversely, the capture and retention of heat—depending on the season—facilitated by a "climate concierge" system.
18 intergenerational social dwellings by López Rivera Arquitectos. Photograph by José Hevia.
Project description by López Rivera Arquitectos
The proposal continues the series of houses with pitched roofs that line the streets perpendicular to the Esporles stream. The building consists of two clearly differentiated volumes that frame a tree-lined inner courtyard and mark a recessed entrance from the street, next to an existing public garden.
The compact main volume houses 18 dwellings distributed over three floors. The second volume, open and slender, accommodates a multipurpose communal room that can be enclosed on the first floor, and a large communal dining room and kitchen on the second floor. This volume also incorporates the entrance, the vertical circulation core, technical rooms and concierge facilities.
All the dwellings are dual-aspect, with a north-south orientation aligned with the prevailing winds that cross the Tramuntana mountain range in the north of Mallorca. To the north, the construction is compact, with solid surfaces predominating over openings. Towards the south-facing inner courtyard, by contrast, all the units benefit from the climatic advantages of a porticoed structure that provides access to the dwellings.
The dwellings extend towards this shared walkway through a combination of benches, doors and windows that offers varying degrees of privacy, allows the space to be occupied and encourages spontaneous interaction between neighbours. The careful arrangement of these simple elements, which mediate between private and communal space, fosters daily communication and exchange between younger and older residents without the need to enter the dwellings. Occasional celebrations and group gatherings take place in the open entrance building or in the shared landscaped courtyard with trees.
The north façade is designed to dissipate heat and conserve energy through a 50 cm thick double wall of thermal clay blocks. The south façade is designed to capture solar energy, working with thermal inertia and the glazed gallery. The solar shading devices and folding glazed panels that transform the gallery into a bioclimatic element are manually operated, allowing ventilation and preventing direct solar exposure in summer. In winter, closing the glazed panels creates a greenhouse effect that captures and retains heat from solar radiation.
These actions are collective in nature, and the building's climate caretaker is responsible for adjusting the devices every morning and evening, following the operating manual incorporated into glazed ceramic tiles in the building's entrance hall.
With the bioclimatic elements operating correctly, the heating and cooling demand of the building as a whole is zero. No active heating or cooling systems are incorporated, achieving temperature differences of up to 20 degrees between the interior and exterior of the dwellings in winter.
The proposal adopts the necessary measures, both in its construction and operation, to already achieve the 100% reduction in emissions required by Spain's Law 7/2021 on Climate Change and Energy Transition for future buildings constructed from 2050 onwards.
