Best social housing community design for Global Awards shortlisted
LOS ANGELES: The shortlist for the best social housing community design has been declared.
Over 250 designs have been considered by the awards secretariat. One of the finalists in this category is shown above.
As housing needs grow more urgent, a new generation of design-led responses is emerging—rooted in care, community, and climate consciousness. These three projects, from Barcelona to Austin to Palm Springs, challenge conventional models by putting people first and embracing flexibility, visibility, and dignity. Designed for public housing residents, individuals living with HIV/AIDS, and unhoused populations, they ask not what’s standard but what’s needed.
Illa Glòries by Cierto Estudio
Amid Barcelona’s deepening housing crisis, Illa Glòries illustrates how publicly funded development—focused more on people’s needs than on profit margins—can drive socially driven urbanism. The 51-unit public housing block, commissioned by the Institut Municipal de l’Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona, was designed by the women-led firm Cierto Estudio as the anchor of a four-building development near the city’s Plaça de les Glòries public square.
At the heart of the firm’s competition-winning concept is a flexible, nonhierarchical apartment layout that breaks from traditional domestic models. Instead of prioritizing a central living room or a primary bedroom, the units feature equal-sized rooms that allow residents—whether nuclear families, roommates, or otherwise—to reconfigure space according to their evolving needs. Kitchens are treated not as secluded corners but as connective social nodes, turning childcare, cooking, and conversation into the core of the home. “We wanted to make caregiving visible and shared, not isolated behind a closed door,” says Marta Benedicto Izquierdo, a principal at Cierto Estudio. Diagonally aligned joints, windows, and room openings encourage cross breezes and shape long sight lines through the apartment and beyond, creating a sense of openness and expansion.
The Global Award winner will be announced in December in London. (Globals)