El Roser Social Centre is a pioneering facility in Spain, designed to bring together in one place the social services of Reus, especially those aimed at vulnerable people. It offers a social canteen, temporary accommodation, food bank, and job placement workshops. The project has led to a paradigm shift in the management of the city’s social services, with more effective collaboration between public and private agents, and becoming integrating into the neighbourhood in which it is set.
Local
Spain
City Council Social Welfare Department of Reus
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-02-01
As individual(s) in partnership with organisation(s)
First name: Josep Last name: Ferrando Gender: Male Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: City Council Social Welfare Department of Reus Nationality: Spain Function: Architect author of the project Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Bailèn 232 bis 1D Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08037 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 606 36 86 46 E-mail:jfb_arch@coac.net Website:https://www.josepferrando.com/
Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): instagram: @josepferrando_architecture #josepferrando #josepferrandoarchitecture #josepferrando_architecture
Yes
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites
El Roser Social Centre is a facility promoted by the City Council Social Welfare Department of Reus, a city of 106,000 inhabitants in the province of Tarragona. It was created with the aim of promoting care policies for people in situations of social vulnerability, enabling the creation of new care services and the reorganization of those already offered in a fragmented way.
The chosen location is the city’s old prison, built in 1929, which closed in the mid-20th century and later housed a municipal pre-school centre. Ten years after its closure, it was recovered for a social use that is totally opposite to its original purpose, with a project that transforms and reactivates the neighbourhood in which it is located.
The project for the Centre is by Josep Ferrando Architecture, which has worked with the local firm Gallego Arquitectura. From the outset, the team decided to recover the constructive essence of the building, listed as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest. In this way, the original structure and typology, which had been concealed, were uncovered in order to highlight them and also to evoke an image of architectural austerity in keeping with the nature of the Centre.
The conceptualization of the project has also facilitated the building’s integration into the urban context to which it belongs. To this end, its original surface was reduced to offer citizens a public space. This took the form of demolishing the prison’s perimeter wall and transforming the freed-up space into a broad path for local people, ensuring greater perception of the architecture of the Centre and the activity that takes place there.
Perception and awareness, and integration into people’s everyday lives are challenges that were reinforced by the decision to designate two areas of the facility for public use: the cafeteria (part of the social canteen installation, operating at different times) and the meeting room of the Local Residents’ Association.
Users are the priority. The project called for an analysis of the needs of vulnerable people to be able to offer them a facility in keeping with the services they receive and the need to feel welcomed, and be treated with privacy and professionalism.
Team work is the key. Social workers, psychologists, architects, engineers, conservators, mediators... The project highlights interdisciplinary work, giving a voice to all disciplines to create a better project.
Looking after vulnerability with dignity. The project is located in an emblematic space in the city that is recognized by citizens, with the aim of showing society the importance of caring for vulnerable people rather than turning its back on them.
Sustainability in the broadest sense. Not just to achieve greatest energy efficiency, but also to avoid leaving an ecological footprint, carefully choosing construction materials and managing services according to this value.
Recovery of the past as a value. After the years of the real-estate bubble, with an oversized, ageing building stock, the Government is turning to rehabilitation as an essential strategy in city development.
In terms of sustainability, El Roser had three key objectives. The first was to design the new facility with a project that preserved the pre-existing construction, without it having to be demolished. This avoided the ecological footprint that the demolition of a building of this size generates. It also made it possible to recover and highlight the utility of 20th-century structures at the service of 21st-century needs.
The second was to ensure that the construction system and technology guaranteed maximum comfort with efficient energy consumption, especially in the newly built module (kitchen and social canteen), designed with Passive House solutions. To do this, the project conceived the new module as a greenhouse with a polycarbonate roof, concrete block walls and a concrete floor slab thermally insulated from the ground. In winter, solar radiation penetrates the building through the translucent roof and is transmitted to the walls and floor slab, where it is stored and heats the spaces. Then the windows in the roof and the stretches of façade at both ends of the construction allow natural ventilation of the interior which, combined with a system of awnings, ensures the comfort of workers and users employing passive means and without the use of energy (reserved for peak cold and heat situations).
The third is related to one of the main uses of the facility: storage and distribution of food. El Roser has been designed to coordinate the Reus Food Management Programme, based on making the most of fresh and cooked food that, despite being suitable for human consumption, would otherwise be excluded from the commercial circuit and end up as waste. The food arrives to be distributed either in meals in the social canteen, or to homes or in the basic parcel of fresh produce that users can pick up. The project took special care to design spaces that facilitate the efficient handling of produce to avoid damaging it, and storage and preservation spaces with easy access
Since the project set out to respect the structures of the original prison, a programme was chosen in which the different time strata of the building, including those of the pre-school centre, could be seen and dialogue with each other. The project therefore identified the concealed construction layers, and decided their degree of prominence and how they would be integrated into the contemporary architectural narrative. When selecting new elements, it was decided that they should be lightweight and tectonic, contrasting with the pre-existing materials: brick, stone and tile.
The aim was to give the building a character of its own, in keeping with its new uses. In this sense, the idea was to evoke an image of architectural austerity that highlighted the real protagonists of the spaces: the users and workers, and all the products and equipment necessary for the Centre to operate. And it is this combination of austerity and life that goes to make the Centre a welcoming place for the people who visit it.
The recovery of the original building also had a basic conditioning factor: the characteristic H-shape of the floor plan of a prison, with a series of closed spaces around yards. First, the project assigned a special use to the two existing yards, making the residential spaces overlook them and have direct access to them, as areas of private enjoyment. Then, new openings were made through the floor plan to make it permeable in Palladian style, eliminating the closed nature of the prison, giving it a sense of depth and making the layouts user-friendly and efficient.
The modification of the floor plan has also had an impact at urban level. Whereas the prison was a building enclosed by a perimeter wall, the Centre has removed this wall to offer the reclaimed space as public space. In this way, local residents and users have a much more spacious path and become aware of the facility due to the continuity of its façades, presented to the city.
Between 2000 and 2008, the population of Reus grew by 19%, from 90,000 to 107,000 inhabitants. The subsequent economic crisis led to more complex social needs, later exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic. In this context, the Council decided to concentrate in a single facility all the social services intended for people in a situation of vulnerability, meeting their basic needs and offering support for their reintegration into social and working life.
El Roser has enabled greater inclusivity in social care as well as an improvement in the quality of the service: in addition to meeting users’ basic needs, it has developed on-site work plans with this group of people. This way of managing social services has led the Catalan regional government to consider it a model that can be replicated in other contexts.
In operational terms, the inclusivity of the project centres on being able to reach a wide range of vulnerable people in different ways:
- Offering emergency accommodation and support to replace the home in cases such as fire or collapse of a home; and, temporarily, for people in situations of social exclusion (without the social or family conditions to be able to stay in their home or without a home). The Centre can accommodate up to 16 people, with space for pets.
- Helping to integrate users and public: thanks to the cafeteria, open to the public at breakfast time, with direct access from the street and visible to the whole neighbourhood.
- Offering the distribution of the basic food parcel in a friendly environment that facilitates self-supply, dignifying a situation that may be difficult for users to accept.
- Offering a facility of quality architecture that helps the public to link social services with positive values and to understand that the most vulnerable groups have to have the opportunity to improve their life options.
The service at El Roser that directly allows the involvement of civil society is Food Management, which includes a wide range of associations and public and private institutions.
Together with the Social Welfare Department of Reus City Council, the promoters of the Programme are:
- Taller Baix Camp, a special work centre that collects, chooses and distributes food, generating jobs for people at risk of exclusion.
- Agència de Salut Pública (Public Health Agency), which guarantees compliance with food regulations.
- Banc d’Aliments (food bank), which advises on establishing agreements with companies and agricultural producers.
- Càritas Reus, which distributes food through parishes.
Collaborators who participate by providing fresh or cooked food:
- Supermarkets, stallholders at El Camp Market, Port Aventura amusement park and other businesses in the territory (providing fresh food).
- School canteens and school catering firms (providing cooked produce).
- Fundació Espigoladors (a foundation that, with the contributions of agricultural cooperatives, coordinates the use of surplus farm produce to prevent it being wasted).
In terms of benefits for citizens, the Reus Food Management Programme has been able to create a total of 20 jobs, 14 of which are inclusion profiles. The work experience of people with an insertion profile at insertion companies increases their professional competences and, as a result, qualitatively improves their degree of insertion into the labour market. It also allows them to recover or acquire working habits and specialize in an area to find a regular job. The main profiles of the groups that placement companies tend to work with are people who present various aspects of social exclusion, the vast majority already users of municipal social services.
The stakeholders in the project are:
. The Social Welfare Department of Reus City Council, the driving force behind the project, which saw the need to bring together social services and took on the challenge of doing it in an innovative way.
. The Technical Architecture and Urban Planning Services of the City Council, which ensured the project’s fit within the city and immediate surroundings, and validated the decision to recover the disused facility in order to revitalize the neighbourhood in which it is set.
. The City Council’s Social Services, which contributed their experience to lay down the conditions of services, running and resources with the aims of improvement and innovation.
. The architecture team led by Josep Ferrando Architecture, designer of the project, with local partner Gallego Arquitectura, which grasped the needs and uses of the new facility, making them possible in a 100-year-old building, doing so with the close collaboration of specialists in structures, envelopes and energy efficiency.
. The contractor VESTA, which worked in coordination with the architecture team. Although construction work was carried out between 2020-2021, during the pandemic, it was possible to complete it just 4 months behind schedule (period corresponding to strict confinement and supply restrictions).
. The social organizations of the city (Càritas, Creu Roja, Banc d’Aliments). Their predisposition towards the success of the project was key in redefining the services involved.
. The bodies responsible for collecting produce, Taller Baix Camp and Fundació Espigoladors, and the companies collaborating in the food collection and distribution service: supermarkets in the area and farmers with stalls at Reus Market.
. Xalets Quintana Local Residents’ Association and Gabriel Ferrater Secondary School, with an active role in neighbourhood acceptance of the new facility.
The main disciplines and fields of knowledge involved in this project are: architecture, urban planning, heritage conservation, engineering, BIM technology, psychology, mediation, social work, and food conservation and handling.
The team of architects responsible for the project was joined by the analysis of a heritage specialist to decide how to intervene in the building to recover structures and elements that were worth highlighting. The project also included specialists in energy efficiency and Passive House systems, developed in the new module built on one of the empty spaces on the site. Modelling of the building was done with the intervention of a team of technical architects specializing in BIM (Building Information Modelling), enabling unified work on structure and installations.
The definition of the Social Centre’s programme of services, meanwhile, involved the City Council’s Social Welfare and Social Services team, which includes professionals in the field of psychology, social work and mediation. These people worked in coordination with the team of architects who conceptualized the spaces, and played a key role in devising the strategy of approaching citizens to guarantee a good integration and reception of the Centre in its immediate environment.
Finally, for services linked to the food store and kitchen, the project relied on the external advice of specialists in the field to adapt the layout of the necessary installations to regulatory requirements.
El Roser came into operation in February 2022, when the social canteen, food bank and distribution services, and job placement and support workshops started. In November 2022, the accommodation service, and the shower and laundry service for external users came into operation.
This year, the number of people and families benefiting has been similar to 2021, given that the Centre has brought together services that up until 2021 were provided in a disjointed manner by different facilities in the city.
The impact/benefit of the Centre’s services are summarized in these indicators:
- Number of people accommodated by the Accommodation Service: 10 (November-December 2022), representing a total of 320 overnight stays at El Roser
- Number of shower and laundry services (November-December 2022): 89
- Number of families signed up with the Food Bank: 715
- Number of people signed up with the Food Bank: 1,913
- Number of meals served by the Social Canteen: 59,939
- Number of people served in the Social Canteen: 468
- In terms of job creation, El Roser has promoted the following:
- Social canteen: a rise from 3 people on contract before the launch of El Roser, to 16 people currently hired, 10 of whom (5 men and 5 women) have an inclusion profile.
- Temporary accommodation: from no people hired (service previously provided by hostels in the city) to 11 people, 6 women and 5 men.
It is important to note that the Centre’s services are sized to be able to provide:
- 240 meals a day in the social canteen
- 800 parcels of basic products from the food bank (handed over every two weeks)
- 16 people staying at the same time in the two residential spaces
We consider El Roser to be an innovative project for three fundamental aspects that define it:
In terms of its programme, bringing together the city’s social services in a single facility, a fact that makes it a pioneering project in Catalonia and in Spain. It has earned the interest of the Catalan Regional Government and other bodies in the social sector, which recognize the value of the project and its good functioning, and consider replicating it in other contexts.
In terms of architecture, for the way it recovers and enhances the pre-existing structures of a building designed at the beginning of the 20th century with a function completely opposed to its present-day purpose. Here, the decision to situate the most private services of the new Centre (temporary accommodation) in the installations of the former prison (designed as spaces of seclusion), leaving for the new module all the services that can be provided in the community (canteen, cafeteria), has optimized the building’s use and ensured a much more efficient implementation of the construction project.
For all of these aspects, the Centre has been selected as a finalist in the FAD Architecture Award and winner in the Rehabilitation category of the 12th Alejandro de la Sota Biennial Award.
In social terms, the project is innovative because of its ability to integrate into the city. Firstly because it is housed in an emblematic building, recognized by the city’s people. But also because of El Roser’s determination to show itself openly, to proactively be part of the city. This is why it was decided to demolish the wall and to design the cafeteria with direct entrance from the street, to open it up to the public, and to work in connection with the Neighbourhood Association and the Secondary School.
In the conceptualization of El Roser Social Centre, we worked from different complementary points of view, the conclusions of which were accepted and applied by the architectural team that created the project, in coordination with the Social Welfare team of Reus City Council.
This methodology, with the emphasis on across-the-board interdisciplinary work, made it possible to focus on achieving the best solutions for the project in terms of architecture, function and comfort. The following aspects are highlighted:
- The architecture team carried out a preliminary analysis of similar projects developed in other European countries to see how various social uses with different conditioning factors were integrated into a single facility.
- The Social Welfare team managed a participatory process with the agents involved who could provide most information and value about the services to be offered at El Roser. Accordingly, sessions were held with the Social Services team of the City Council and the bodies of the Taller Baix Camp Food Management Programme, Càritas and Fundació Banc d’Aliments. The architecture team was also present in this process to understand the needs and conditioning factors expressed by the social services professionals of Reus, and to find the best solutions.
- The architecture team also had external collaborators who worked specifically to find the optimum solutions for energy efficiency (Aiguasol Cooperative), the envelope (the firm XMADE) and the recovery of heritage elements.
Firstly, unified social services management in a single facility is one of the innovative elements of the project with obvious possibilities of being replicable that are in fact already being studied. In terms of efficiency in the coordination of services, attention to users, coordination between different bodies, and also in terms of resource efficiency, this is a model that the Government has considered pioneering in our country, exportable to other municipalities.
Secondly, interdisciplinary work between professionals in different fields, placing the needs of the uses and services of the Centre above the architectural conditioning factors, and seeing architecture as a discipline at the service of people. This teamwork has been key to the success of the project, and has also meant professional enrichment for all members, who have been able to make their contributions with the aim of adding value to the Social Centre.
Finally, the strategic approach to the rehabilitation of the old city prison, carried out according to the following premises:
- Making the most of the characteristics of the old structures for contemporary uses that adapted best to them;
- Giving urban prominence to the building to make its use manifest, thereby integrating it into the social context to which it belongs;
- Addressing the intervention by making pre-existing elements dialogue with new ones, making the rehabilitation more obvious and the building more understandable for users, who can easily differentiate the new from the old.
The constant growth of cities and major inequalities between their inhabitants make it foreseeable that social services will continue to play a key role in municipal management in the mid- and long term. The pandemic proved this: while one part of the population was able to work remotely, another saw its income drastically reduced, to the point of being unable to meet its usual expenses. In Reus, in 2020 the number of families needing food support from Social Services increased by 60%.
Attention to vulnerability has a clear local component, because it is based on the personalization of attention and the monitoring of the individual to address issues that have to do with subsistence. El Roser makes it possible to manage social services in the 21st century because it provides a comprehensive, integrative, inclusive, collaborative—in short, strategic—approach, and it does so based on local action, in direct contact with the people it helps and in constant interaction with society.
Comprehensive, because it brings together all the services aimed at vulnerable people and makes them more effective and efficient, at the same time improving the personalization of attention and the monitoring of each user.
Integrative, because far from being isolated from the city’s people, it is located in a popular neighbourhood of Reus, next to a secondary school, recovering a historical building and contributing to the revitalization of the area.
Inclusive, because it sees vulnerable people in their diversity, and offers them spaces and services that respond to their different needs: people or families with economic difficulties, homeless people, people in exceptional situations... many with health problems and addictions.
Collaborative, because it promotes and improves relations within the network of collaborating bodies, especially those of the Food Management Programme: Banc dels Aliments, Taller Baix Camp, Càritas, Agència de Salut Pública de Catalunya... among others.
