Entre Patios

FORA + Beth Hughes
Competition - Housing - Cordoba - 2011

Cordoba is defined by the critical density of its historical center: narrow streets limited by buildings hiding in their interiors patios and communal spaces full of life. The proposal building contains the morphological richness of the existing city, with its balanced alternation between dense volumes and empty spaces, and the gradient from public to private (street-patio-house); creating a new neighbourhood for the city.

The building is organized in five rectangular blocks alternating with patios that occupy the full length of the building; like a secondary network of streets functioning on the first floor, animated by the humor of its inhabitants.

The building contains different typologies within a simple and modular structure. Each rectangular block accommodates a different typology: a "microneighbourhood" inside the larger neighbourhood which is the building. The blocks get closer to each other encouraging relations of vicinity. Moreover, a continuous system of galleries and communal spaces crosses through the whole ensemble connecting the different typologies and inciting unexpected relations between private and communal.

 

Team: João Moura Fagulha, João Prates Ruivo, Raquel Maria Oliveira, Beth Hughes.Client: VIMCORSA.