Social Housing by KAUH at the 13th BEAU

The project by Vincent Morales Garoffolo and Juan Antonio Sánchez Muñoz from KAUH Arquitectos has been selected for the 13th BEAU - the Spanish architecture and urban planning biennial. The project is for social housing units in Conil de la Frontera, Cadiz.



It's no easy task to construct a dignified and visually appealing arrangement according to the rigid parameters of a competition to build 20 social housing units. A task that Vincent Morales Garoffolo and Juan Antonio Sánchez Muñoz from the KAUH firm of architects have completed with true elegance, within the timeline and under the tight budget.





The end result is a streamlined residential building in Conil de la Frontera, an Andalusian town between Cádiz and Gibraltar, with a simple, clean formal language that not only fulfils its function of providing accommodation to twenty socially vulnerable families, but that also seeks to fill in the gaps of the urban planning in the zone by creating shared, public spaces.



For this very reason, the designers from KAUH focused specifically on a mediating between street and building, by creating semi-public passageways leading into the units through a common patio for the whole complex.





The result is a gathering place that facilitates socialisation between residents and engages with the local neighbourhood at the same time. Because in order to be loved and respected by the inhabitants, which is very important particularly when it comes to social housing, beauty plays an essential part, since, in the words of Dostoevsky, beauty “will save the world”.



The project by KAUH, selected for the 13th BEAU due to its architectural value and focus on the urban environment combines usability, budget and a modern style to respond to one of the key issues of the contemporary architectural debate: sharing and participation.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: KAUH arquitectos, http://kauh.es/
Location: Conil de la Frontera, Cadiz, Spain
Year: 2013
Images: © Fernando Alda – more images on http://www.fernandoalda.com/en/works/architecture/803/20-viviendas-vpo-en-conil-de-la-frontera-cadiz