Residence

Residence for older people

Place: Hondarribia, Gipuzkoa
Year: 2025
Type: Academic project · Proyectos VI
Team: Eneko Ortiz, Estela Sanchez, Gartzea Zaldua

Description

A residence for older people in Hondarribia, on the site that is now an Eroski car park: a complex around a cloister, with an inner garden and roofs at different heights.

In the Proyectos VI course (2024/25, UPV/EHU School of Architecture) we worked on a new neighbourhood in Hondarribia and on collective housing. We did it as a team of three, with Estela Sanchez and Eneko Ortiz, and proposed a residence for older people on what is now an Eroski car park, next to a roundabout.

The site has its own challenge: it is a neighbourhood car park today, and building on it means losing spaces. The residence takes the place of the car park and, to make up for the lost spaces, we designed a small parking block on one side of the plot.

Project decisions

01
A cloister
Three of the four sides are the residence itself; the fourth is a small services building that closes the cloister. The central courtyard, with trees, timber benches and a square, is the heart of the complex.
02
A shared ground floor
The residence's ground floor is for shared use: dining rooms and kitchens, reception and toilets, opening onto the courtyard. The spaces residents share every day are at ground level, on the same level as the square.
03
Playing with heights
The volumes rise to different heights and the roofs sit at several levels. On the lowest roof we made a kind of park: a garden with trees on top of the building.
04
The room as a small home
Each room is a small home: entrance, living room, bedroom, bathroom and terrace, with a wardrobe. That type is repeated on every floor.
05
A parking block
Since the residence takes the car park off the site, we made a small parking block on one side of the plot to make up for the lost spaces.