The affordable housing project for young people promoted by the IMHAB in the industrial enclosure of Can Fabra, in the Sant Andreu del Palomar district, has won the first prize in the category of multi-family housing of the AIT-Awards. These Awards, which have been conferred since 2012, are among the most important prizes in the world of architecture and interior design. This year, 877 projects were presented from 47 countries. Finally, 83 projects were recognised in 14 categories which include single- and multi-family housing, hotels, healthcare or cultural buildings or participatory architecture, among others.
Can Fabra won the first prize in the category of multi-family housing. The complex contains 44 homes for young people aged 18 to 35, with an average floor area of 64 square metres and large common spaces that can be shared according to requirements. It is Barcelona’s first public housing building constructed in an industrial complex while maintaining its exterior structure. The construction process also took the matter of sustainability into account, using recycled, recyclable and low energy impact materials.
These are the two aspects that the jury highlighted of the project, designed by the Roldán Berengué Arquitectes firm, transforming an old warehouse from the year 1905 into a housing complex. The jury pointed out that it is a project “which interprets the spatial qualities of an industrial building with a tremendously contemporary sensibility”. It also accentuated the sustainability of apartments produced with a construction system inside the building that creates a thermal envelope signifying a key energy-saving concept.
This is the fourth prize won by the Can Fabra architectural project. In recent months it has won the Hispalyt Prize as the best multi-family housing project, the Mapei Sustainable Architecture Prize and the Advanced Architecture Awards.