Spain. A housing complex for elderly people like a shell

Located in Adeamayor de San Martin, Spain, this housing building for elderly people by Óscar Miguel Ares promotes to be in touch with nature, with the sun, but also enhancing the close relation between inhabitants of the building; the neighborly relations among chairs in the front door of the houses that are so recognizable in the rural areas of Castilla y León. The building is formed by white concrete blocks paired in a striated way, marking an intense but subtle border with the ground.

The exterior is abstract and hard, as the environment. A seemingly insurmountable barrier, a shell to protect the interior that becomes kind, warm and complex. The external severe geometry contrasts with the inner complexity. The rooms are generated as small cells that clump together organically around the courtyard, creating interstitials and areas of relation, both to the courtyard itself as the interior. The whole work has been governed by the use of simple and cost-effective materials, without fanfare. Geometry, spatiality, light and careful treatment color and textures to get a warm and cozy interior protected by an abstract and rhythmic limit to the exterior.