Date _ 2010

Location _ León, Spain

Typology _ Residential, Industrial, Commercial

Surface _ 24800m2

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This project presents the challenge of mixing residential and industrial uses in a new urban model. To that end, a new urban concept, ‘reversible city’, is explored and defined by five principles:

 

• The city is two-sided. Each side can be used simultaneously as appropriate. 

 

• The movement of one of its parts causes the movement of the other, and at the same time, moving the latter, the movement of the former occurs.

 

• It shares public urban spaces.

 

• There are independent circuits for each program. 

 

• There is physical contact between its parts.

 

Drawing upon urban investigations like Fumihiko Maki’s Group Form and models like Cedric Price’s Fun Palace, a set of morphological types are defined and further implemented in the new urban development. These are adapted following the principles of the reversible city so that the two antagonistic programs are able to cohabitate. A sector of the reversible city is further developed as a possible architectural solution to this programmatic conundrum. The building-infrastructure is articulated both vertically and horizontal by the definition of linking points between programs. This generate a set of shared spaces and private areas for the activities to work properly. The limits of this infrastructure is blurred, though the control of its parts is precise and strategic.