5. November 2024
Cris Ballester Parets in Santa Eugènia, Mallorca (Photo: Screenshot from video at Vimeo)
London's Royal Academy of Arts has released a 17-minute film presenting the collaborative social housing projects in Mallorca developed by Cris Ballester Parets, winner of the 2024 RA Architecture Prize.
As managing director of the Balearic Housing Institute (IBAVI), Cris Ballester Parets realized numerous social housing projects in Mallorca, on the Spanish island of Majorca, between 2019 and 2023 — at least 1,500 houses, she explains at the beginning of the short film from the RA. The video visits some of the affordable housing projects that were designed by architects within IBAVI as well as ones designed by PERIS+TORAL Arquitectes and Harquitectes. In addition to hearing from Ballester Parets and the architects, the film includes commentary from the mayor of the municipality of Santa Eugènia, residents of the housing, and owners of the local quarry that supplied the marés sandstone for the projects.