The Hàbitat3 Foundation hHe presented the remodeling of the first and second floors of the building Casa Bloc from the neighborhood of Sant Andreu in Barcelona. In 2016 l’INCASÒL, The owner of the building signed an agreement, through the’Catalan Agency of Housing (AHC), To transfer the management of the first and second floors to the Habitat3 Foundation, in order to dedicate them to social housing purposes. The works consisted of transforming the first and second floors of the building to adapt them to the accommodation needs of people cared for by social entities within the Taula del Tercer Sector or by people in a state of social emergency cared for by the social services of the Barcelona City Council.
For Monapart it has been an honor to be able to participate, as external consultants in communication, in a project with deeply rooted values, a great commitment to social causes, and the enhancement of the lives of people who suffer the most from an increasingly pronounced gap.
During our guided tour of the homes with Xavier Mauri, director of the Habitat3 Foundation, we were able to witness the quality of the finishes and the well-thought-out design of the work, while largely respecting and paying homage to the style, functionality, and concept that originally breathed the space now rehabilitated.
An innovative project of social housing
La Llar Casa Bloc is an innovative social housing project in Barcelona. The homes have one bedroom and one of them is adapted for people with reduced mobility. The construction cost was about 800,000 euros and the renovation work took 8 months. In the 17 homes, measures have been implemented to combat the digital divide and monitoring systems for consumption, thanks to the collaboration of Cellnex Telecom. Measures have also been implemented to combat energy poverty situations through the improvement of energy efficiency, thanks to the collaboration with the Naturgy Foundation and Ariston.
The Casa Bloc Housing Project has received the support of the following administrations: the Government of Catalonia, through the Catalan Housing Agency and the Department of Social Affairs and Families, and the Barcelona City Council.
It has also received financial support from the Naturgy Foundation, Busquets Gálvez, the La Caixa Social Work Foundation, and the Association of Real Estate Agents. In parallel, it has also received support for materials and/or services from: Roca, Ariston, Simon, Cellnex, the Architects’ Association of Catalonia, the Technical and Engineering Association of Architects of Barcelona, Basf Casa Jové, and Monapart.
Casa Bloc: a historic building, a symbol of rationalist architecture
La Casa Bloc is a residential building built between 1932 and 1936 located in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona. Its architects were Josep Lluís Sert (1902–1983), Josep Torres Clavé (1906–1939) and Joan Baptista Subirana (1904–1978), all of whom were members of the GATCPAC (Group of Catalan Architects and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture). Today, La Casa Bloc is considered a symbol of rationalist architecture in Barcelona promoted by the Generalitat of Catalonia during the Second Republic. In fact, at the time it was an innovative social project, integrated into the urban environment and with functional housing conceived as minimum standard accommodations for workers. It was a project that took into account the relationship between the new building and the resulting urban morphology, thus proposing a new model for the Barcelona of the 20th century in contrast to, but not contradictory to, the Eixample of the 19th century. With the restoration of democracy, Casa Bloc returned to the Generalitat, which in 1992 declared the architectural complex a Cultural Interest Property in the category of Monument.
The Habitat3 Foundation, promoted by the Third Sector Table, is a social housing manager made available to social inclusion projects of Catalan Third Sector organizations that require housing to carry them out, as well as to public administrations to meet housing demands that exceed the current public housing stock. As of December 31, the Foundation manages 615 homes in which about 1,700 people live. It has also acquired 116 purchase housing units over the last 4 years for vulnerable groups.
With these goals in mind, the Habitat3 Foundation works to find and obtain housing that can be offered for rent at very low prices and with the lowest possible utility costs, so that it fits as closely as possible to the payment capabilities of the households it serves. In 2019 it received the Gold Prize from World Habitat Awards (best housing initiative in the world).
The renovation works of Casa Bloc have enabled the creation of 17 homes so that 30 vulnerable people can move in starting in February 2021. An innovative social housing project in Barcelona, promoted by the Habitat3 Foundation.
