Diagonal Besòs Student Residence

student housing in the Forum district
The new Diagonal-Besòs Campus in Barcelona aims to become an innovation centre where internationally acclaimed education, research, and technology transfer meet. In the middle of the city's Forum district – a neighbourhood in full development – POLO has designed university housing for students and professors.
Location

Diagonal / Ronda Litoral
Barcelona
Spain

Year
2019
Surface area
8.874m²
Status
realized
Client
L.I.F.E.
Architecture
  • MDBA Architects
winning competition design
Photography
Aldo Amoretti
Tibodts

Rooftop terrace with a sea view

The housing complex consists of 191 residential units accessed via outdoor walkways around the patio doubling as balconies for the units. The strategically located sanitary facilities divide the compact rooms into different spaces with views of both the central patio and the street side.

Movable sun blinds on the outer façade serve to interrupt the repetitive nature of student units.

The fifth floor has an outdoor swimming pool and the eight floor offers an urban rooftop terrace with a sea view. The addition of community functions to residential life demonstrates the project’s social ambitions and effectively renders the Diagonal-Besós campus into a compact city within the metropolis.

Associated themes