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Following the on-going string of developments in and around London’s Elephant & Castle, Ciudad Elephante offers an alternative to the disrupted Latin American community and local business traders. The project is distributed across multiple sites within Elephant & Castle to create a neighbourhood following 15 minute city principles, where desired aspects are available within a 15 minute walking radius; therefore, making the area accessible to elderly, low income, and busy family residents. The main site provides a space for local businesses, community spaces to reignite and celebrate the Latin American culture, educational areas to provide facilities for families, and finally, affordable housing units to address the displacement of local residents by soaring rent prices. The residents live and relax alongside the public space; their produce is grown in their community gardens, harvested, and sold in the market below. The Ciudad Elephante celebrates the Latin American Community using materials, such as rammed earth, as well as bright colours characteristic from the region. The Ciudad Elephante provides a space where local businesses and families can access an environment conducive of growth. Children are surrounded and celebrated by their culture. Onlooking communities will be invited to learn so that Elephant & Castle can become a place of love and celebration once again.
Apartments are split over multiple levels to separate areas without needing doors. Thee split levels also maximise space and ventilation.
Shared balconies create communal pockets of celebration that overlook the produce community gardens, managed by the residents.
The pool shares its roof with the greenhouse, allowing plants to fall into the space. Exhaust heat from the pool is recycled into the greenhouse, creating tropical conditions.
Balconies face one another to increase social cohesion between residents, creating a stronger community.
Technical section throughout the one bed apartments showing how the rammed earth panels attach to the concrete frame structure.