BIOCLIMATIC VILLAGES

Chinchilla, Albacete.Spain. 2007

This is a project of a new neighbourhood in the Albacete metropolitan area, with 2,800 subsidized homes, cultural facilities and technology incubators. The project grew out of research into the creation of self-sufficient habitats for a new generation of citizens who want homes at an affordable price in a complete urban setting in which they can live, work and relax, in keeping with the lifestyles of the society information.

The district is intended for young people from the Albacete metropolitan area, the whole of Castilla-La Mancha and even from Madrid or Valencia, whose way of life is centred on networking or teleworking, taking advantage of Albacete’s excellent communications thanks to the AVE advanced passenger train.

The new district, laid out on 100 hectares near Chinchilla station, will be organized in sections defined by the circulation systems, which will also include pedestrian, cycle, sports and agriculture circuits. There will be more than 20 hectares of green space, sports facilities and agricultural plantations.

The houses are organized in ‘villages’ with self-sufficient management systems and energy production, urban allotments, homes and workplaces. There will also be business incubators and offices for innovative companies, especially in the fields of new technologies, sustainability and logistics.

The district will use on an experimental basis, for the first time in Europe, a domestic hydrogen micro-network, connecting buildings with different functions (homes, offices and cultural amenities) in such a way that each generates hydrogen cleanly and can share it with other units when needed. This will mark the beginning of the introduction of hydrogen networks, which the European Union has identified as the future of energy. The district will also have its own hydrogen-fuelled transport, thereby implementing the introduction of a public hydrogeneration system on the A-31, one of Spain’s busiest motorways.

In addition, a high-speed Intranet will connect all of the homes, enabling the residents to organize themselves by way of the neighbourhood web, an innovative browser that will promote social interaction. From an urban perspective, an advanced neighbourhood is a compact nucleus developed on the basis of an integral project, with sufficient density and critical mass to generate the kind of social and economic relations associated with a city. As a result, the advanced district enjoys functional autonomy, generously equipped as it is with amenities that enhance the quality of life and accommodating a productive tertiary sector that provides jobs. A place to live in, not just to sleep in.

Credits:

Project date: 2007
Client: Promohogar
Site: Chinchilla de Monte Aragón, Albacete
Architecture: Guallart Architects
Main architects: Vicente Guallart, María Díaz
Collaborators: Marian Albarrán, Ana Cabellos
Models: Fabian Asunción, Ángel Gaspar, Rafael DeMontard
Images: Nestor David Palma
3D: Lucas Cappelli + UokU.com - net architects; Lucas Jagodnik,
Mariano Castro, Horacio Suaya, Martín Escoyez
Photography of models: Adrià Goula, Daniel Ibáñez
Consultants:
Program: José Miguel Iribas
-Asociación de Jóvenes Empresarios de Castilla La Mancha (AJE)
-CLM Energía