X-ray of a transformation: this is how the flats where we live have changed

BarcelonaFor a long time, housing has become one of the country's main challenges. Often, however, the debate is reduced to figures. Those that refer to how many apartments need to be built. Those that tell us about the increase in the price per square meter, whether for purchase or rent. Even those that talk about how many more people can live in a specific place. There is also an approach to the issue from another perspective. What are these homes like? Have they changed much compared to how they were built twenty years ago? What should the buildings of the future be like?

There is no short answer to any of the three questions. In conversation with ARA, the director of the Metropolitan Institute for Land Promotion and Asset Management (IMPSOL), Josep Maria Borrell, attempts some. He believes that in the case of administrations – IMPSOL is an entity that falls under the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) – the general halt caused by the real estate crisis opened up a "deep reflection" on what should be promoted by the public sector in terms of housing.

"There is a change in perspective. We are not only going to build high-quality buildings, but we are conceiving them a bit like facilities," he argues. And what does that mean? Borrell himself answers: "The building will be built for 100 years. We know who we are now and how we live now, but we have no idea what will happen in 20, 30, or 80 years. Therefore, what we need to do is create habitable social infrastructures with a lot of flexibility." Buildings, in essence, that adapt to circumstances.

And in this field of innovation, the public sector plays a key role. This is summarized by the director of the architecture area of Grup Corp, Javier Aldámiz, who believes that the type of housing desired by the administration looks "slightly" more towards the future and takes more risks, while people buying an apartment on the free market seek more conventional housing, with a "more bourgeois, less progressive" style.

Rooms without hierarchy

One of the chapters where this difference is easiest to see is in the layout. According to Aldámiz, free-market housing maintains a "more classic" organization, with a clearly differentiated day and night area, and a room system marked by a main chamber – the double conjugal – and then others that are smaller, whether double or single. "On the other hand, public housing at this time seeks inclusion and de-hierarchization of spaces," he points out.

Borrell corroborates this trend. Let's delve into his description of a protected housing type from before 2017: an entrance hall, a corridor, a more or less closed kitchen, a day area, and a night area with a corridor with two or three rooms. Now, he explains, corridors have practically disappeared and the aim is often for all rooms to be the same size and interchangeable.

The goal is for the life of the inhabitants to dictate the space and not the other way around. What you currently need to be a child's room can easily become an office if they leave home later, or a new living room, or, later, if you have aged, are alone and need care, it can become a room again where your companion stays. A model that, notes architect Maria Sisternas, draws heavily on the influence of the article The house of equal rooms, by Xavier Monteys in 2013.

However, Sisternas raises some warning lights regarding this de-hierarchization of spaces. She points out, for example, that in this search for equality between spaces, dining rooms are being made too small. "Dining rooms are beautiful when they are spacious. In the dining rooms we are making now, you can't fit a table to invite two more people," she says. And this, in many cases, these dining rooms are displacing the living room as the central area of the homes.

The open kitchen is gaining strength

Borrell points to mobile device consumption as one of the factors explaining this change. "The family convergence space today is no longer the sofa in front of the television because everyone watches what they want. It must be the kitchen and the dining room," he maintains. And here comes one of the changes where, in recent years, both public and private sectors have gone hand in hand: open kitchens. The CEO of Euroconstruct and president of the Association of Developers and Constructors of Spain (APCE), Xavier Vilajoana, assures that buyers are looking for "an open space and to be able to breathe more", which ends up leading to houses without corridors and with the kitchen integrated into the dining room.

From Corp, Aldámiz also remarks that these types of kitchens "are inclusive" and allow the person working in them to integrate with what is happening in the rest of the house, thus establishing a coexistence despite each person carrying out different activities. Borrell delves into this idea of integration, and also speaks of "making visible" the spaces for domestic tasks. "They must have the same quality as the spaces that were considered noble," he concludes.

The director of technical services of the Municipal Institute of Housing and Rehabilitation of Barcelona (IMHAB), Joan Carles Melero, adds another variable to the conversation. The need for apartments to be prepared for all phases of life, including old age. "We take this into account with the bedrooms but also with the bathrooms, which must be a space for care where two people can maneuver in a shower," he explains.

Neighborhood activating buildings

Another characteristic of new homes – both public and private – is the blurring of hallways, a move aimed, once again, at maximizing the use of available square meters. One of the lessons from the pandemic is also being imposed: the importance of balconies and spaces with outdoor access. "At 22@ or in many urban plans, it was said that the facade could not have balconies. Now that is no longer the case," emphasizes Sisternas.

The architect and former director of Incasòl introduces another element. The importance that buildings "take into account the value of the street" and flee from "the completely isolated logic" of the so-called "zebra blocks" – the characteristic black and white buildings that have proliferated in many new developments in recent years as if they were mass-produced –. Borrell agrees, and advocates for public housing blocks "not to be bunkers", but rather that on the plot where they are built, a square or a space gained by the people can also be created. "When this happens, it stops being a building and becomes a neighborhood activator," he says.

Apartments that change the mindset of those who live in them

But beyond distribution, other aspects have gained relevance in how new homes are built today. One of these is the constant search for improvements in energy efficiency. "85-90% of new buildings have at least a B energy efficiency rating. Not only due to regulations but also due to global awareness," highlights Xavier Vilajoana.

Joan Carles Melero considers this the "key issue" for housing. He argues that when building new homes, the public sector now prioritizes aspects such as ventilation or sunlight in apartments over maximizing built meters with single-facade homes. "If you don't have sunlight, you'll never have it. If you don't have good ventilation, you'll never have it," he emphasizes. And he points out that public housing must respond to climate change.

This is echoed by Josep Maria Borrell, who believes that the architecture of new homes should help "change the mentality of the people who will live in them" and allow them not to spend a lot of money on electricity for air conditioning. "We have to go back to raising and lowering blinds and awnings, we have to look for bioclimatic gallery strategies," he argues, adding that if public housing is intended for people with fewer resources, it must be made easy for them to also have a low energy bill.

Parking lots that can be libraries

Melero also emphasizes the need to minimize the ecological footprint when constructing buildings, and explains that IMHAB has focused on this by setting a maximum emission threshold in the tenders it announces. It also gives this section a very important weight in the scores. He also points out the importance that – in the style of the rooms – the structure of the buildings should also be flexible. "If in a while I want it to no longer be a housing block but a facility building with smaller apartments and many common areas, the more neutral the original structure, the better," he summarizes.

Borrell gives other examples of architecture designed for this future flexibility. For example, in a world with less reliance on private cars. "Our parking lots are always naturally ventilated and lit so that in 10 years' time they can be converted into libraries, daycare centers, commercial spaces, or this type of facility," he explains. In the same vein, he adds that buildings must be prepared in case people stop having washing machines at home in the future and a community laundry is needed, or to have multipurpose rooms that can serve as coworking, or having bicycle parking.

In the private field, from Corp Aldámiz explains that they already build buildings with a space of coworking for the neighbors, a concierge, a gym “and, if possible, a swimming pool”. According to him, there are increasingly more promotions on the free market that opt to boost the building's common areas. Vilajoana, on the other hand, maintains that they are not usually the main focus. “People consider what it will cost to maintain the building,” he points out, adding that “if you heavily furnish the communal spaces, you end up with small apartments”.