The City Council has temporarily granted the use of the site to the organisations promoting Wikihousing: the architect’s studio Straddle 3, the environmental consultant Societat Orgànica and the Barcelona Institute of Urban Research (IDRA), and will assume 46% of the cost of the building.

The block will have four homes on each floor, each with 50 square metres of floor space, along with a large communal area. The flats are for people between the ages of 18 and 30, on the Barcelona register of applicants for officially protected housing (HPO).

The project started out with backing from the Fundació BIT Habitat, which selected it from the initiatives presented in the call for “The Proactive City 2021”. This has allowed it to take advantage of an unused space in the neighbourhood and involve a hundred young people in developing the prototype for these flats.

Innovative and sustainable project

The block is being built using an innovative system with a light combination of wood that means the structure can be assembled in just six weeks, and the building to be completed in six months, cutting the execution time by more than half compared to a standard development.

The construction project positions modules directly on the site, with reversible and accessible joints facilitating maintenance and adapting the building for the disassembly and the reuse of components.