Estudio Lamela Presents Post-Pandemic Houses in ‘ABC’

The cultural supplement of the ABC newspaper exclusively presents some of the responses about residential architecture in which Estudio Lamela has been working on over the past weeks. Faced with the extreme confinement that the coronavirus has forced upon us, the Studio has deeply reflected on the current housing design and the paths it should follow to make houses better, more flexible, and safer spaces. There are already some answers: Air, security, light, connectivity, flexibility, and greenery are some of the basic elements of the equation.

In fact, one of the bases of Estudio Lamela’s post-pandemic housing projects is the versatility of spaces: Multifunctional areas that support working at home that also consider making daily life more comfortable by incorporating natural light and nature.

It’s a theoretical proposal that can, of course, be translated into real space. “This project that we present is a theoretical-intellectual exercise because it’s impossible to transform houses overnight, and we’re aware of that. There wouldn’t be any economy to sustain it,” shares Carlos Lamela, president of Estudio Lamela, on ABC. And he continues: “The proposal is a housing experiment in case of pandemic emergencies.” This doesn’t mean that it’s detached from the present and reality. On the contrary; it’s an example of critical thinking. “We live in a society that has become so highly monetarist that it values ​​everything based on cost and money. We’ve transferred the low-cost concept to everything. Newton said he owed his achievements to having seen the world from the shoulders of giants, those great sages of previous generations. We haven’t lost that vision and it is what we must recover,” Carlos Lamela concludes.