1999
/
2002
The building is located in Mendillorri, a recently developed area very close to Pamplona. It is a low-density area devoted mainly to social housing and with a generous amount of green spaces. The site’s topography and the elongated shape of the plot, between a large park and a built area, are the essential features of the project and to a great extent the guidelines of the proposal.Hence, a first stretch of the building opens up to one of the most important and spacious public areas of Mendillorri (the “plaza”), in the intermediate stretch it shapes the street, and at the end it accommodates ground level dwellings with a garden. Different urban and typological conditions which are addressed specifically, but which start from one same architectural unit.The double orientation allows the building to be in contact with the park and the large square, as well as the street of access to Mendillorri. The entire building can be conceived of as a limit, a frontier, a shared boundary line between park and built area. The ground floors are very significant in this sense. When open to form large porches they act as “doorways” between one another, establishing a visual and physical continuity between the public spaces of the built area, square and street, and the park’s topography. The rear street, generated from an abrupt topographical cut and materialized with rough stone gabions, extends the paved surface of both square and street, allowing an easy access to the landscaped sides of the park and the arcades. There are two levels to reach the buildings: from the park via bridges that span the existing drop of the terrain and contribute to distinguish the “landscape” built on this side, or directly from the street at the lower level of the building.