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Much of the appeal of FOA's architecture is in the strength of its concepts and the rawness of its delivery. At the heart of each scheme is a brilliantly simple idea. In Yokohama it was roof as place, in the sadly unexecuted BBC Music Box it was the transparency of the skin, here with Carabanchel they have designed a piece of municipal housing which shutters up to become a bamboo box, shielding the residents from the fierce sun of the central Spanish plateau. 

EMVS, the public private partnership established to house the rapidly growing population of Madrid, is engaged in one of the largest programmes of experimental public housing in the world. One of the latest and best of these is Carabanchel. 

The rectilinear concrete framed box sits on a base containing parking and generous storage for each apartment. It is dressed in a flared grass skirt. This green plinth – yellow in fact for much of the year and so not a drain on scarce local water resources - literally elevates the scheme above its somewhat mundane immediate neighbours. 

This is urban, as well as urbane stuff, and sits firmly on the pavement edge. Elegant ramps reach inside the building from the place. The common parts are robust, white walls and galvanised handrails. The bedrooms are tiny but living spaces generous and all the rooms are easily reconfigurable. Each apartment has a 1.5 metre deep balcony shaded by those opening bamboo shutters, protecting both the terraces and the glazed facades from the East-West sun.