合成空间丨Yasmine Khowessah,Lara El Naggar

SYNTHESPACE

DESIGNERS: Yasmine Khowessah, Lara El Naggar

Date: 2025

PROJECT OVERVIEW

We were challenged by our professors to reuse the aluminum pieces of the Institut Français. This assignment formed part of the 2025 Premis Habitàcola competition, meaning it was not only an academic exercise but also a real-world project aimed at reimagining an actual site. To develop our proposal, we conducted site visits and performed a thorough analysis of the building to understand the potential of these aluminum elements. From there, we created a proposal to transform these pieces into a new architectural or social intervention that would breathe life back into this underused urban space.

SOFTWARES: AutoCAD, Sketchup, D5 render

Finalist in the 2025 Premis Habitàcola: Endiumenjar a Coderch, organized by ArquinFAD.

STORYTELLING

This visual narrative illustrates the conceptual and design process behind our project for the 2025 Premis Habitàcola competition. The sequence begins with an analysis of the Institut Français building, highlighting the aluminum window frames as the focus of our reuse strategy. It explains our decision to work with these aluminum elements because of their repetitive nature and environmental impact, supported by site analysis and fieldwork.

The storyboard then transitions to our design proposal: repurposing the aluminum pieces to create new architectural elements, including benches, a canopy, and staircases, all synchronized to transform the previously unused exterior space into a lively and social area. The storytelling approach integrates site-specific studies, design thinking, and the translation of material reuse into vibrant public space, reflecting our project’s adaptive and sustainable ethos.

PHOTOMONTAGE

This photomontage captures the essence of our proposal by merging architectural plans, diagrams, and human figures to highlight the social and spatial transformation envisioned in our project. It overlays the existing site plan of the Institut Français with diagrams of our intervention, situating the new social space within the broader urban context. The collaged crowd figures illustrate the reactivation of the underused exterior area and emphasize the project's community-oriented purpose. A portrait of José Antonio Coderch, whose building we are intervening in, is also integrated to pay homage to the site's history. This layered, dynamic composition reflects the project's aim: to synthesize past and present, reuse and new purpose, and bring vibrancy to an overlooked urban space.

PLACEMENT PLAN

The purpose of this plan is to see where our idea will be placed in the institut, in this case, the canopy that we decided on making will be placed, in the space in front of the entrance, and the the unused terrace.

PLAN

In this plan, you can clearly see our proposal: a canopy structure that extends to cover both of the previously underused spaces. We incorporated stairs to provide access to the upper terrace area, creating a seamless transition between the two levels. The plan also reveals how the space is organized to function as a social area, with pathways, seating arrangements, and organically shaped green zones that encourage social interaction and leisure within the revitalized site.

SECTION

This section further clarifies our proposal, illustrating the two distinct levels of the intervention and how the stairs seamlessly connect them. The canopy structure is shown extending across both spaces, maintaining a coherent design language throughout the social area. By including human figures and subtle landscaping elements, this section demonstrates how the space functions as an active, engaging social hub that encourages interaction and community use.

These images that were created using a combination of Photoshop and SketchUp. show the final outcome of our proposal, which features a canopy structure made from the recycled aluminum pieces of the Institut Français’ windows. The canopy unifies two previously unused spaces, located on different floors, by connecting them with a staircase and maintaining a consistent design language. To break away from the rigidity of the metal structure, we added organically shaped seating areas filled with greenery, creating a comfortable and inviting atmosphere within this new social space.