Given the uniqueness of the initiative designed to provide subsidised housing based on an attitude that is contemporary and sensitive to current social trends, a comprehensive strategy has been adopted based on an interpretation of the PLACE and typological research based on improving living conditions and processes in order to give rise to quality housing that is sustainable and adapted to the various considerations that influence the construction of the architectural concept.
The international competition on Vanguard Social Housing (VIVA) organized by the Spanish Ministry of Housing placed a high emphasis on the relationship of the new architecture with the urban environment under the slogan ‘We Make City’. Addressed to disadvantaged citizens and -as expected in most social housing projects- it had a tight budget. We decided to confront the tightness of the budget by taking advantage of the richness of the site complexity.
Team project & competition: Beatriz Zorzo Talavera, Angela Martinez Lago, Alvaro Novas Filgueira, Meritxell Rovira Pueyo, Elena Chevtchenko, Jose Manuel Franco, Michal Gdak, Melissa Vargas, Emin Balkis, Marta Koziol, Jorrit Sipkes, Inge Goudsmit, Harm Scholtens.
Site direction: Alberto Weil Rus, Felix Madrazo, Manuel Perez Marin, Sanjay Prem
Programme: Public library, exhibition area, press area, children area, teen library, audiovisual area, research labs, manuscripts and archives. An archaeological centre exhibits a Marinid excavation of the XIV century.
The new Library in Ceuta is conditioned by the steep topography of the plot and by the Arab Marinid archaeological excavation of the XIV century that determine all interior spaces of the Library. Also the lack of space and the compactness of Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish city located on the north coast of Africa on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, condition the proposal.
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