the grove · barbados

Three-storey buildings are hardly ever found in Barbados. All we can see is small houses, single-family homes, no matter if they are simple or opulent. Apartments designed to be used by professionals, temporary immigrants, atypical families, or middle-class workers simply do not exist.

But now a new shopping mall is working well, so the operating company decides to meet this urban need.

The mall is located on a very fragmented rural scheme consisting in a network of roads among small highways with a lot of traffic. At the back, halfway the slope in a terrain with no views, a kind of urbanization with terraced houses of three or four floors had already been planned.

We analyzed some preliminary developments and proposed a simpler, up-to-date architectural style and a climate adapted scheme to promote crossed ventilation and minimize the use of air conditioning in outdoor spaces.

On the other hand, we strived to optimize the accesses and reduce traffic, which was very slow and allowed in most streets at the expense of buildable roof and green areas. Concrete and heat were all over in the former village, and the quality of life was significantly lower.

Year
2011

Architects
Jaime Romano
Manel Landete

Collaborators
Jason Edwards – PM