Social Housing Historical Center, Puebla

Bringing quality social housing to a historic center -a world heritage site - requires thinking about typologies and spatial strategies that allow different ways of living. To this end, we have opted for a typology of housing with a central courtyard and a backyard, in order to allow a double source of ventilation for each housing unit. This condition is organized from a housing typology that is distributed in thirds, where we inserted all the functions containing technical installations into the second third—the middle one—with a determination to leave the extremes available for a more flexible use and to achieve that spaces of long stays have contact with the street and the back garden. For this typological purpose, we proposed five typologies that guarantee social interactions and exchanges.

We were impressed by the value given to ornamentation and its technical and aesthetic implications. We thought that this decoration needed to remain and be readapted for today’s conditions.

Our recommendation was for a prefabricated, terracotta-stained concrete to occupy a part of the façades’ surface. The color gave continuity to the city’s chromatic identity.

The decision to use concrete stemmed from the opportunity to have a malleable material that is also capable of resonating with historical forms, as well as ensuring low maintenance.

We considered that other parts of the façade required handcrafted Puebla-style talavera ceramics in blue and white.