Hybrid Building in La Torre: A New Urban Core for its Users

The project takes advantage of one of the urban voids in the old area of La Torre (a district in the south of Valencia, Spain) to create a permeable and light building that contains different uses: residential, cultural and local market, which are connected by green areas and pedestrian routes, generating an exterior-interior continuity.

La Torre is a district located in the south of Valencia which is surrounded by territorial elements of a structural nature. Currently, two differentiated and disconnected areas can be seen, the old and the new, full of urban voids. The project takes advantage of one of the urban voids in the old area, generating a new nucleus of the neighborhood connected to the main axis. In this area, there is also an abandoned industrial warehouse. The project completes one of the blocks with a light building that allows passage and use of the closed block courtyard, thus generating an open building. At the same time, it makes the pre-existing warehouse constructively independent and rehabilitates it with current materials and construction systems, preserving its shape and structural system. Finally, it generates a new volume integrated into a large urban park arranged with trees, plant elements, street furniture, lighting and living areas. All the parts of the project will maintain a relationship among them and will be connected with the exterior thanks to the extension of the uses towards the exterior and the urban and landscape treatment. The project program is divided into three uses: Market, residence and sociocultural center. The residential area consists of an access hall with living and leisure areas, community kitchens, flexible rehousing homes, and meeting and work areas. The market is made up of an interior area and a central exterior area, with stalls, tasting stalls and cooking workshops. The sociocultural zone is a single open and diaphanous space of a flexible nature, in which all the parts maintain physical and visual relationships. At double height there is a multipurpose space, which can be used as an exhibition area, book presentations or spaces for children, and another space that can function as a small flexible theater with its server areas. At a simple height there is an office and coworking area used as meeting points or as living areas. On the first floor there is a reading area that opens onto the main double-height space. On the ground floor there is also a cafeteria with a covered outdoor area.