From Saint-Nazaire to Caño Roto: operational methodologies in the contemporary city based on the project strategies in the work of Lacaton and Vassal

Abstract

At a time when the complexity of the contemporary world poses new challenges in the field of housing, the work of Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal is an essential reference. Their projects – oriented to intervene in collective housing buildings – have been widely studied from architectural, constructive and climatic considerations. This contribution aims to broaden this perspective. To what extent do these interventions on isolated buildings have implications at other scales, such as the open spaces of housing complexes? Could these strategies generate a working method with an impact on the processes of transformation, regeneration and dynamization of the intermediate spaces of these complexes? Is it possible to think that they can be extrapolated to other urban and climatic contexts? This article explores to what extent the design strategies developed by Lacaton and Vassal on the building itself (superposition, materiality, and eventuality) have or can have an impact on the transformation of urban space and explores the possibility of transferring them to different urban sociocultural and climatic contexts. Specifically, from the case study of the Saint-Nazaire complex, one of their projects with more implications in open spaces, an exploratory translation is proposed to a Spanish case, Caño Roto ‘poblado dirigido’.