Carabanchel housing by FOA

There was a time when bamboo was mostly associated with cute panda bears, tropical huts and pineapple cocktails, rather than cutting-edge contemporary architecture; well, you know as well as we do that these times are long gone. Versatile, super eco-friendly and comfortingly cosy, bamboo has become increasingly popular in both design and architecture, so it came as no surprise when Foreign Office Architects opted for it to play a leading role in their latest housing scheme in Spain.

Bamboo louvers mounted on folding frames, cover the facades of this new project, within Madrid's Carabanchel public housing development in the city's south suburbs. The basic parallelogram block hosts units of different sizes and shapes, and due to their tube-like interior shape, they all have a double east-west orientation, also allowing access to a private garden on the eastern side. The louvers not only provide the necessary protection from the blazing summer sun, but also enhance security, and as they are controlled entirely by each unit's occupants, they aim to stress spatial independency.

The London-based architects based their design on a simple concept that is low-cost, sustainable and playful, experimenting with the standard ideas on social housing. Construction work was finished in March 2007, while some final landscape touches are currently being added, and the first residents are expected to start moving in at the end of this month.

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22 August 2007 | Architecture