The next few days will see the City Council allocate the twelve provisional homes located at C/ Nou de Sant Francesc, 8-10, in the Gòtic neighbourhood. The first families, registered with the Emergency Board, will be able to move in after the Christmas period and live there provisionally while they wait for definitive social housing. People on the register of applicants for officially protected housing in Barcelona will also be able to access APROP homes.

The block uses a modular structure made up of sixteen reconditioned shipping containers, pieced together to create a building with twelve flats: four two-bedroom flats with 60 square metres of floor space, and eight one-bedroom homes with 30 square metres of floor space. The project cost 940,000 euros.

The building was finished in four months, during which the stairs and the lift were installed, the new façade created and the outer shell added. The Gòtic primary healthcare centre will also be housed on the ground floor.

The pilot project for this alternative housing takes its inspiration from successful initiatives already working in cities such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Vancouver.

A more sustainable solution

The building was made using shipping containers, an innovative formula for constructing homes quicker and more sustainably. As these are modular industrialised buildings, APROP homes cut waste by 58% and the reuse of shipping containers represents a 32% reduction in CO2 emissions.

APROP homes have an AA energy rating, meaning their energy consumption is four to six times lower than that of a conventional building of the same characteristics.

Second project in Sant Martí

The building in the Gòtic neighbourhood is part of a pilot project currently being rolled out, with other blocks to follow in other city neighbourhoods. A second project will be put out to tender early in 2020, with the block to be built at C/ Bolívia, 33-41, in the neighbourhood of El Parc i la Llacuna del Poblenou, in the district of Sant Martí. This second development will have 42 homes, 35 doubles and 7 singles, along with a communal laundry, neighbourhood facilities, an urban cultivation patch and a green rooftop.