Commonspaceatthescaleofthehouse

Year 2019, La Borda is finally built. Three years later, and its own residents have already appropriated and been integrated in the space. Us, as pedestrians in the south-west area from the center of the city of Barcelona, walking down the street “Carrer de la Constitució”, we can identify a discontinuation of the architectural and urban vocabulary of that street. The building of La Borda, from the outside, doesn’t seem a regular housing project, maybe not even a building with housing function as its main program. A cold, sort of introvert façade, that creates intentionally both distance and intimacy against the publicness of that street. The result is that it allows the source: Akazawa, B. (2021) pedestrians to visually and physically connect with it only on the level of the street, and then, as higher we look it gets more semi-private up to the top floors where optical connection is not even possible, showing to the outside spectators the introvert character of the community and the project of La Borda. But does that go against the idea of commons -when common space is considered as an open structure to new users to interact with it?

La Borda in Barcelona von Lacol, image, Detail, Available at: https://www.detail.de/de/ de_de/la-borda-in-barcelonavon-lacol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

Following the high-ceiling concrete columns of that façade, the stilt guides physically and visually to the backyard of the building, introducing us not only to the heart of that building block but also to the site of Can Batlló. The façade encountered there, is covered mostly by light materials, such as wood and metal, having at the same time more transparent relation on the ground floor. By that, it creates an overall feeling of an intentionally warmer and softer facade in comparison with the other one, creating an irregularity to the idea of having the main façade as the one that refers to the street. But here, it is the opposite case. With that gesture, it feels that the community of the cooperative of La Borda is expanded and physically connected to the rest of the community of Can Batlló, showing its extrovert character and how they want to share commons, across that common land.

22. As Stavros Stavridis in his online lecture explains “That is why I try to insist that the common space should be threshold is an intermediate, is an in-between area in which negotiations take place.” source: Miralles, L. (2019) La Borda, image, Lluc Miralles Photography, Available at: https://llucmiralles.com/ Cooperativa-d-habitatge-LaBorda-LaCol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

Source: California College of the Arts – CCA, op. cit., 14:40.

The central area of the CHP of La Borda. At the same time, the and the reference point of the residents of La Borda. The access, not only to the communal spaces of the ground floor, but also to the housing units on the upper floors. Facing the south towards the main site of Can Batlló, there is a direct optical connection and physical one through the communal spaces there.

Having so far, in mind just the two façades, the spectator as an outsider of the general project of La Borda, receives a message, or maybe a statement, from the cooperative of what is community for them. From the street side, La Borda creates a semi-transparent barrier between the Can Batlló and the broader neighborhood of La Bordeta, protecting the first one. A balance between introvert and extrovert. Between micro-community and macro-community. It is important to understand how crucial is the location of the project in relation to the further Can Batlló’s site. Being located along one of the limits of the site of Can Batlló, a sort of threshold22 is created source: La Borda (n.d.) Vida en comu, image, La Borda, Available at: http://www.laborda.coop/ ca/projecte/vida-comunitaria/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023). source: Valdecantos, A. (2021) image, Available via a privately shared web drive with license of Lacol. source: Lacol (n.d.) La Borda in Barcelona von Lacol, drawing, Detail, Available at: https://www. detail.de/de/de_de/la-borda-inbarcelona-von-lacol (Accessed: 26 January 2023). between the local community and broader one. Like other common spaces, La Borda act as an intermediary space, in which negotiations take place.

The social life of the coresidents of the CHP of La Borda in the patio, the central space where communal spaces come across, encouraging social interaction and processes of commoning to happen. The space shown in the image is the result of residents’ participation during its construction, but as well as of the appropriation and personalization of months of usage.

The communal areas at the ground floor of the CHP of La Borda. The community kitchen and living room have a direct view and physical access to the main area, the heart, of Can Batlló’s community, expanding the limits of Borda as just a collaboration housing project. It is more than that. It is the threshold between two communities: the microcommunity of La Borda and the macro-community of Can Batlló. A space of commons. A space of commons, where social interactions are encouraged.

Floor plan of the ground floor of the CHP of La Borda, Lacol.

During the first day of visits of the 48 Hours Open House in Barcelona, visitors were able to enter and visit the various spaces of the CHP of La Borda. source: Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona (2020) La Borda in Barcelona von Lacol, image, Detail, Available at: https://www. detail.de/de/de_de/la-borda-inbarcelona-von-lacol (Accessed: 26 January 2023).

After entering the building, we find ourselves in the central courtyard -the heart of the building. It is strongly surrounded by community spaces through the different floors, enabling social interactions among the members. By doing that so, that indoor atrium becomes a reference point for the users and the facilities of the cooperative housing. It is important here, to understand that Lacol probably understands through the process of commoning the importance of the role of maintenance and the presence of common interests to the evolution and perennity of commons. An example of this, is the choice of position of communal spaces, and their in-between connections and relations. Likewise, in Block 4 there is the idea of having a central space that enables social interactions. A different arrangement of spaces than in Block 11, where there, a sequence of different facilities-rooms is benefited for different reasons.

As mentioned before, La Borda as cooperative housing project, it is more than a social housing project. The distinction is made obvious by the strong presence of community spaces on the ground floor, such as communal kitchen, dining and living room, situated to the south of the project. It seems that this decision was not meant necessarily to benefit from the sun, but probably to connect to the broader community of the post-industrial site. An active connecting link between the community of La Borda and the other ones that forms the Can Batlló area.

It is worth to mention here that a community space, or more in general communal space, is not necessarily a common space, where commoning process takes place. It is important to understand the difference between the two groups. The homogeneity of the community of La Borda set limits of the process of commons. But that doesn’t mean necessarily that has negative impact on the broader site.

On the contrary, it seems that for La Borda, community is in the center of the project. Communal spaces are expanded on the first floor and spread all the way up to the fifth floor. Precisely, the first floor was chosen to host the washing machine facilities, where the members can share, not only the machines, but also the chance to meet and socialize, either in the laundry room, or at its extension -an open-double ceiling space between the atrium and the public street. A gentle gesture, where we can perceive as a step back from the openness and loudness of the street, letting the cooperative to choose if they want a visual connection to the neighboring buildings source: Miralles, L. (2019) La Borda, image, Lluc Miralles Photography, Available at: https://llucmiralles.com/ Cooperativa-d-habitatge-LaBorda-LaCol (Accessed: 26 January 2023). without exposing their selves physically from the main street. If we assume that that was the intention of La Borda, then in the same logic, it can be perceived as the main reason that the housing units on the north façade start two floors higher than they start on the south façade. This is not necessarily against the idea of the commons, since the community as an entity decides on how, when and where to give and have interaction with the further, “exterior” community.

The interior facades of the CHP of La Borda facing all towards the central point where the patio is forming a reference point for the co-residents. At the same time, the corridors, a kind of threshold between he private life inside the housing units and the publicness of the patio and its communal spaces. A reference to corralas.

It is crucial to understand the connecting link between private and public life. The distribution infrastructure that connects the units among the different floors, the corridor, is one of the key elements of the embracement of social life through

La Borda. Their sociospatial attributes brings references to the traditional corralas -a typical housing building in Madrid, in Spain- where the corridors are part of the core facades. Similar to the corralas, an internal and central reference point is created for the community of La Borda, where members can interact, socialize, or even negotiate their processes of commoning, such as living together and sharing communal services. This idea is expanded towards each pair of housing units, by stretching the corridor towards them, which finally acts as a threshold between corridor’s social life and intimacy of every two housing units.

+1. after La Borda

More than an architectural result

Even though, it is not perceived as a direct link to the process of commoning in the practices of Lacol, sustainability has been playing a significant role in the project of La Borda. In other words, it helped in the establishment of essential conditions for accessible housing to the community. One aspect of this, is the group of elements and techniques of bioclimatic design integrated by Lacol, such as the mechanical roof system and the role of natural light –it is expected in the long term that it will save them money from different electrical facilities, and therefore reduce the cost of living. But more important here, it might be the common laundry, where the members of La Borda are called to use the space sparingly. An intention of maintenance and source: Ríos, B. (2005) The corralas of Madrid: a symbol of popular housing, Geografia Infinita, Available at: https://www.geografiainfinita. com/2020/09/las-corralasmadrilenas-un-simbolo-de-lavivienda-popular/ (Accessed: 26 January 2023). source: Valdecantos, A. (2021) The Architecture of Cooperation, image, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Available at: https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/ articles/issues/28/with-andwithin/78781/the-architectureof-cooperation (Accessed: 26 January 2023). to take care of La Borda, both the building and the community. And by doing that, the designers are not meant to impose a model of living to the users. It’s more as an outcome of processes of collaboration and community-led practices.

The corralas, the inspiration of Lacol for the CHp of La Borda. Likewise, the traditional corralas originated in the city of Madrid promotes social interactions between the residents of the building, not only the ones of each floor, but also vertically connecting the different floors. The example in the image is The Corral del Coliseo.

As an overall, La Borda -the first housing cooperative built so far in Barcelona- was formed as a housing solution for a group of locals looking for affordable and decent housing, where the community is in the center, and based on the principles and values of social economy and solidarity, and community integration. It can be perceived as a miniature of the site of Can Batlló. Lacol managed to compressed most of the needs and the larger goals of the neighborhood into the scale of the housing project. And that is why, La Borda is more than a final architectural result. It is between new way of living together, creating social bonds, and organizing daily life to share care work and domestic life. But also, it is an intergenerational dwelling, securing itself as common space where the legal and physical infrastructure allows the community of La Borda to involve and persist throughout the time. In other words, La Borda cannot and should not be seen as a common space in the same way as the Block 4 or Block 11 do, where different people from the community of La Bordeta gather to help and interact with each other. It is reduced down to a smaller community, the family of La Borda, where the wholesome of its members consider themselves as a big family ready to take care of the space and of its residents –with the possibility of those to change over time. That is why, once again, a naive description made by only its architectural definition is not enough. But, it must be certainly described, by the relation between Lacol and the community before, during and after the development process. A process of commons and collaboration through housing activism, community infrastructures, and broader sustainability that it continues even today.

As in many collaborative housing projects, two members of the architecture cooperative Lacol are also residents in La Borda, and therefore members in the concerning cooperative. That was probably crucial to get to know better the rest of the community of La Borda and the neighborhood of La Bordeta by taking advantage of the proximity. Possibly, a choice with even political extensions of living within the social movement that initiated the project, as well as a critical practice of testing out the possibilities and limits of the structure itself. A continuous procss of identifying challenges, lessons and limitations to overcome potential problems in the future of the project -or maybe for future projects.

It is true that Lacol wants to continue collecting data -even after their first experiences in community participation, social sustainable infrastructures, and processes of commoning in almost all the phases of the promotion, design and construction of La Borda- in order to create a common platform where information is gathered not only about how much energy is spent in the residential building of La Borda, but also, to create a legal, social, and structural framework towards a possible replication. Even though, as a self-managed project, which was a long and tiring process -because of the collectively made decisions23- they want to standardize their architectural practices -if possible. Towards more projects like La Borda, across not only the site of Can Batlló, but also in the broader metropolitan area of Barcelona, and so to reassure their sustainability against neoliberal practices. A systemization of their architectural practices and beyond, in order to generate tools and resources, making this housing model more popular and accessible to others with further goal: the right to the housing.