The shipping containers being used for the structure of the second APROP housing project in Glòries are now being put into place. The building will offer 42 short-stay homes to help address the emergency housing needs of over a hundred people in vulnerable situations and in need of a home.
Thirty-five of the homes will have a usable floor space of 52.7 square metres, distributed into a living and dining room with an open-plan kitchen, two double bedrooms, a storage space and a complete bathroom. The other seven homes will have one double bedroom, with a usable floor space of 25.8 square metres and a living room with an open-plan kitchen and a complete bathroom.
On the ground floor there will be spaces for the maintenance and management of the building, spaces for communal activities, a communal laundry room and a large multi-purpose room. A cultivation area will be created in the building’s inner quadrangle and managed by the Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities, with members of this collective to work there.
The allocation of these homes will guarantee a social mix and include people with emergency housing needs, young people and single-parent families. Work will take 26 weeks, a much shorter period than the minimum two years required for conventional constructions. The amount being invested to build the block and condition its inner quadrangle is 4.98 million euros.
A more sustainable construction method
According to a study commissioned by the City Council to assess industrialised building methods using shipping containers and based on the first APROP housing project in the Gòtic neighbourhood, the process represented a 33% saving in non-renewable energy and CO2 emissions, plus a 48% saving in the consumption of resources.
Widely acclaimed building system
This construction method has been recognised by various local and international awards. The latest was one of the European New Bauhaus awards, a prestigious accolade forming part of the European Green New Deal, which recognises initiatives that contribute to the ecological transition, the economic recovery and improved coexistence.
The project has also gained the first prize in the Ibero-American Architectural Work of the Year 2021, a special mention in the Mapei Award for Sustainable Architecture 2020 and a special mention in the FAD Award for Architecture 2020. It was also a finalist in the innovation in construction category at the Catalonia Construction Awards and a prize winner at AMO Architecture 2021 (France). Finally, it has also been chosen for the 15th Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urban Planning.