Building 111

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Building 111 is a social housing project by Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores through the architecture practice Flores & Prats. The project investigated the social dimension of housing. It involved the design of 111 apartments in Terrassa, Barcelona. The work has received extensive acclaim via international architecture exhibitions, awards and publications. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The project tested the idea of promoting communication, relationships and familiarity, so that the neighbourhood could perform as the core social structure within society. The centre of the building is a communal patio serving as a platform for social interactions between neighbours. In designing collective housing, Prats' intention was to design a community, and simultaneously to articulate this community to its neighbourhood. This project demonstrates her ongoing investigation into the potential for collective housing to create stability in the context of global crisis. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: Flores & Prats' proposal won first prize in a public architecture competition in 2004. Upon completion, the project was exhibited at the XI Spanish Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (2011). It won an award at the Vallès Architecture Biennale (2012), and was the finalist at: the AVS Awards for Social Housing in Catalonia 2011-2013; Premis FAD Awards (2011); and the European Awards Ugo Rivolta (2011). It was featured in 3 other exhibitions: (1) the monographic exhibition 'Meeting at the Building' (2013) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen; (2) 'Crossed Sights' (2012) by the Catalan Architects' Association at Sala Picasso in Barcelona; and (3) the travelling exhibition 'Export Barcelona: Social Housing in Urban Context' Mendrisio, (2013), Geneva (2015) and Zurich (2016). The project was profiled in the journals Domus and Architecture Australia, and numerous European magazines and newspapers.