For "Air Passage," Peris + Toral Arquitectes incorporates floodable flowerbeds that protect privacy and function as an urban drainage system for the apartments, which are grouped into three cores with cross-ventilation and open courtyards in the basement. Two levels are designated for parking, with trees and climbing plants that prepare the space for future uses as mobility patterns evolve.
The building is unified by its construction with hand-fired brick, while the interplay between the masonry and the latticework filters light and air. Combined with the thermal inertia of the concrete slabs, this reduces energy demand in summer. In winter, the terraces are enclosed with glass curtains, acting as a thermal buffer. The overall renaturalization reinforces the integration with the landscape.
"Air Passage" by Peris + Toral Arquitectes. Photograph by José Hevia.
Project description by Peris + Toral Arquitectes
Located in the Maresme region, an area defined by its proximity to the sea, its steep topography, and its streams, the 40-unit social housing building Air Passage integrates a future public facility, a commercial space, and a parking garage. In contrast to the L-shaped volume on a base envisaged by the urban development plan, the project fragments the building into two sections and, through a passageway that frees up the corner, extends Ciutat Reial Street, transforms the roof of the facility into a public plaza, and connects the neighboring municipal sports complex to the town center. The apartments are accessed from the plaza, a neighborhood meeting point; a stepped staircase connects it to the old town and the lower facility. Handmade bricks fired with biomass unify the complex, while brickwork and latticework filter light and air.
The passageway acts as a bioclimatic corridor. The apartments, grouped into three sections, benefit from cross-ventilation through the living areas. Open courtyards in the basement ventilate and illuminate the facilities and the two parking levels, achieving more than 20 air changes per hour. Trees and climbing plants absorb CO₂ and prepare the parking area for future uses as mobility patterns evolve.
Located on the site of a former channeled stream, the complex includes a redevelopment that incorporates floodable flowerbeds. These protect the privacy of the ground floors through vegetation and topography, and act as a sustainable urban drainage system: they store rainwater for irrigation, infiltrate excess water, regulate humidity, and mitigate the urban heat island effect.
The apartments offer three typological variations depending on the position of the living room, which may be closer to or separate from the kitchen-dining area. The interior partitions extend and detach from one another, unfolding like planes that expand the surface area for furniture and articulate the space. The thermal inertia of the concrete slab and the exposed brick wall enclosing the bathroom, combined with cross ventilation, reduces energy demand in summer. In winter, the terraces are enclosed with glass curtains that act as a thermal buffer or a heat-collecting gallery, depending on their orientation. The self-supporting exposed brick façade is positioned in front of the slab, allowing for continuous insulation and eliminating thermal bridges. Heating is provided by a centralized air source heat pump and photovoltaic panels connected to a stratified storage tank that uses the domestic hot water temperature for heating, achieving an A energy rating.
The continuity of color and texture between the façade and the surrounding landscape, along with the overall renaturalization, reinforces the integration of the complex with the landscape and the public character of the passageway.
