El Croquis #219 IBAVI: A Collective Research 2019-2023

The Balearic Social Housing Institute (IBAVI) is a public body attached to the Mobility and Housing Ministry of the Government of the Balearic Islands. Since 1986, its main objective has been the promotion and rental of social housing.
The IBAVI collaborates with other organisations in the management of subsidies and mortgage guarantees, among other activities, all of them designed to facilitate and improve access to housing for the region’s residents. It also manages the Balearic Islands public housing stock (1,753 social rental homes in 2019). At this moment, 1,118 new dwellings are either finished, under construction or at the drafting stage of the project with a construction budget. These 46 promotions, adapted to the scale of the islands’ towns, follow the principles of the Life Reusing Posidonia project, funded by the European LIFE+ for Nature Conservation & Climate Change Adaptation Projects, awarded with the 2021 LIFE Award for Best Environment Project by the European Commission.
The goal is to increase the housing stock to 3,000 dwellings, including inputs from other procedures. The Institute’s desire to constantly increase this stock is based on two core objectives: to tackle both the current housing crisis and the ongoing climate emergency. Most of these housing projects have been designed by external studios via a project competition or public tenders. Experienced, well-known teams as well as young emerging talents have provided examples of a new language based on a change of model to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which prioritize maximum comfort using passive criteria to reduce energy poverty, the use of preferably local materials with a low CO2 footprint, and the inclusion of the gender perspective in the design, all of this seeking the highest architectural quality. Paradoxically, this new language emerges from the recovery and adaptation of the local Balearic heritage to contemporary needs.
The IBAVI’s work has been published and