Pro Tem Vill solves the need to temporarily house 800 climate refugees coming to Barcelona. Its 13 hectares find place by the beach in El Poblenou, more precisely between the intersection of Av. Del Litoral and C. de Bac de Roda, and Av. Del Litoral and C. de Selva de Mar.
The area houses a mixture of locals and immigrants, in addition to tourists. The site’s immediate surroundings consist of the beach by its Eastern side, a low-traffic road- and pedestrian path in the South and North, and the highway in the West. Across the highway are newly built housing blocks, a contemporary interpretation of the Cerda blocks, by Carlos Ferrater. The area is a part of Barcelona’s extensive metro net, as well as frequent possibilities for bus transportation. It’s a contrasting intersection of urbanity, with highway noise, tall buildings, and the cosmic feel of the coast. In a relatively open landscape, sunshine and light are a blank canvas ready to be controlled as desired.
Big priorities are the social aspects of immigration- how to make the refugees feel welcome and how to make the preexisting inhabitants be welcoming to the refugees. A moment in need of extra attention might be the mixing of locals, tourists, and refugees on the very beach that the settlement is next to. Secondly, it is important to create a warm and healthy society within the settlement. This will be solved by giving the inhabitants of the settlement an agricultural responsibility towards a common goal- a Sunday market. The market will also be their way into the hearts of the preexisting inhabitants of the city, by offering fresh food every week. In addition to this, Pro Tem Vills people are responsible for supervising- and sculpting the vegetation of the park that will stay after the semi-permanent settlement is gone. All of this will bring the refugees together and work out the internal social challenges.
The inhabitants consist of families, singles, elderly people, and children. Two different housing typologies are therefore developed to suit all needs. The families will live in their own apartments collected in complexes of 7 apartments each. The four-volume complex has an interlocking orientation with a rich semi-private space in the core, where their agricultural patch is located. The singles will share smaller apartments in pairs, in a bigger complex of 28 apartments of the same strategic volumetric composition. Both typologies consist of multiple floors, changing from 1 to 4, all according to the correct exposure according to the heliothermic axis.
A variation of buildings hosts the general program of the settlement. The composition follows a gradient of privacy- from the welcoming center close to the school and the family homes to the single housing and agricultural patches, and finally to the most isolated worship centers.
All structures are primarily divided into two categories: permanent- and semipermanent. The permanent structures are the ones that will stand left to complement the future park. These are the tallest parts of the housing complexes that are closest to the beach, serving as restaurants, beach shops, cafes, and public toilets- whatever is needed during a day on the beach. The only other building that is of permanent type is the school. While in use as a settlement, it houses educational facilities on the first floor and a sports hall on the second. After the settlement, this will be a double-pitched sports hall complimentary to the football facilities south of the site. The permanent buildings’ structures are made singly with CLT. The semi-permanent ones are also of CLT but of smaller dimensions and scales.
