Alberto Campo Baeza

This social housing apartment building, with minimal floor areas, stacked in six storeys, and complying with current codes, is situated on a linear edge looking west to the panoramic view of Madrid.

Each apartment is set out as a unified continuous space; a horizontal space with horizontal light, between two parallel facades facing one another, one against the landscape, or street, and the other to the courtyard. The facades open from side to side, and are crossed by both Light and Air, the upper and lower planes, the ceiling and floor, are continuous. A horizontal Light tensing a horizontal Space. The kitchen, the Hearth, is at the center, presiding over the space with out separating it. And to both sides, four articulated pieces paired with the bathrooms mark the cross axis. The geometric mechanism of the double axis underlines the clarity with which the space is controlled. Three of the pieces are bedrooms, the fourth being the connection with the exterior, and the vertical communications.

Essential, rational, elemental, and efficient, as if it were copied from a textbook. Almost anonymous, without the signature of an architect. Almost without Architecture, with almost nothing. Essential. More with less.