This project degree program from a twofold social urgency: the growing isolation of older people and the structural difficulties faced by young people in becoming independent. More than 2 million older people live alone in Spain, and almost half of them feel lonely on a regular basis (INE, 2023). On the other hand, the average age average emancipation exceeds 30 years, weighed down by job insecurity and the lack of affordable housing (CJE, 2023). Added to this is a core topic environmental limitation: 50% of older people avoid leaving their homes in bad weather (WHO, 2022), which reinforces their isolation and reduces their quality of life.

Faced with this reality, and thinking about my own grandfather (whom I imagined being more accompanied in an residency program , but still confined within four walls), a core topic question arose: what if we could bring the street, vegetation, and social life inside the building?

This is how this residency program , located between Atocha and El Retiro, came about, proposing a way of living based on intergenerational coexistence, connection with nature, and long-term architectural flexibility.

The building is organized around a large covered central atrium, which acts as its social, climatic, and compositional heart. Its roof, constructed with double laminated wood beams, incorporates operable skylights that passively regulate thermal comfort: in winter, it enhances the greenhouse effect; in summer, it opens to promote upward ventilation and evacuate hot air. In addition, it channels rainwater to green areas through a natural drip system, and a spot misting system is planned to improve comfort on the hottest days.

The architectural experience is divided into three acts:

—To arrive, through a plant filter that softens the transition between the urban space and the interior, providing shade, silence, and visual continuity.

—Crossing, moving through the atrium, where natural light, vegetation, and intermediate spaces invite meeting .

—Being on the landscaped deck that completes the route as an open space for the neighborhood, for relaxation and social interaction.

The 21-meter slope of the site is not avoided: it is inhabited and activated as an urban route connecting different levels, reinforcing integration with the surroundings and giving the building a public dimension.

In terms of materials, the project laminated wood (the main structure, which provides warmth, lightness, and adaptability) with exposed concrete on the sides and in the atrium, where its light tone amplifies natural light and emphasizes the verticality of the space.

The building has been designed as a flexible infrastructure, capable of adapting to future changes in use. The criteria adopted at the urban, compositional, construction, environmental, and structural levels allow for long-term programmatic transformation, thus ensuring its functional and social viability over time.

This proposal that architecture can be an ally against isolation, rigidity, and fragmentation, making the house, the street, and the landscape a single shared place.

More projects