[Location suggested by CTAV Arquitectos Valencia] This exceptional group of 138 limited-rent dwellings was built for the restless Cooperative of Commercial Agents in a block of the Second Ensanche of Valencia. He proposed a group of three residential blocks (one with three floors and two with twelve floors with commercial ground floors), around a free interior space for neighborhood use. The strict compositional geometry of the blocks, based on the modulation of the reinforced concrete structure (as occurs in works as important as Le Corbusier’s Habitation Units or Mies van der Rohe’s Promontory Apartments), is subtly counteracted by the different nature of the rest of the materials used.
After the profound disappointment caused by the construction of this radical debut feature, the architect Santiago Artal would never be the same. It is included, since 1996, in the DOCOMOMO International Registry.
