Anna Bofill Levi is a Spanish architect that was part of the Taller de Arquitectura movement (together with his brother Ricard Bofill Levi). Recently, she was offering a lecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (Akademie der Bildenden Künste München). My impression was that her work is very user centered and that’s why I decided to write about it here, specially about Walden 7.
Walden 7
This building was finished in 1974 when Barcelona was facing the need of sheltering thousands of workers coming from different places. The aim of this work was to avoid typical appartment blocks that look like huge gray boxes. There was a big need for social housing but also for interactions and a feeling of society for a new community.
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Anna Bofill Levi explained that they were thinking in the user the whole time, talking with potential residents before the construction and getting feedback several years after construction. The result of such a user centered design was a place were people naturally interact and communicate.
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Walden 7 has shops, bars, terraces, gardens, patios and swimming pools connected through bridges, balconies and trails. The configuration resembles the one of a medieval city.
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The facade is also special, it looks like a huge red fortification wall connecting interior and exterior through big windows.
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The Power of a User Centered Design
Thinking in the user experience from the beginning was clearly positive for the project. What started as cheap social housing ended up being a place where people don’t want to move out from, driving prices from very low to high. People living there are also organized in a community, the building has its own web page and they organize events for themselves, including annual donations for other communities.
