Big Words. Housing Cooperative Around the Church

The main objective of the project is the urban regeneration of the historic centre of Xixona. To this end, the proposal aims to redefine the relationship between the aging local communities and a new community of young people through new housing models capable of revitalizing the interstitial space between the historic quarter and the new urban fabric.

Faced with an imminently ageing population, an impracticable urban layout, lack of job stability and, therefore, of young population, a cohesive solution is proposed to address these issues through a project that primarily has two lines of action. The first aims to dignify the housing conditions of the residents of the historic center, delving into key issues for our society, such as housing and care for the elderly, among others. The second aims to attract young people by offering a housing alternative to that of the big cities and addressing issues such as job delocalization, the reality of remote work and the search for a new way of city-making opposed to the outdated model of large cities.\nInspired by the thoughts of Richard Sennett in Building and dwelling, the intervention takes place on the edge of the historic center, more specifically at the meeting point between the urban fabric of the center and that of the 20th century urban expansion. A place made up of spaces of opportunity where the intersection of different situations can become the embryo of new typologies. A grey space in which the hybridisation of fabrics creates a new interstitial fabric capable of establishing continuities with the existing without renouncing to its own identity.\nThus, the project acts as a backbone between important landmarks in Xixona’s urban fabric such as the end of an important commercial axis such as Constitution Avenue, the church and its immediate surroundings as well as the well-known Plaça Nova. This is an integrating project that not only aims to provide Xixona with new housing models but also seeks to be an articulating element of public space with a necessary urban-scale intervention that will allow the recovery and dignification of the place’s memory and heritage.