Barrio Metalico

Barrio Metalico is a small community of nine freestanding houses set within the industrial and residential neighborhood of Millville, east of downtown Tucson, Arizona.

Initially conceived as a speculative project to enhance the neighborhood in anticipation of the adjacent 51 unit conversion of a 1923 Ice and Cold Storage the Metalico homes quickly took on their own personality and feel.

The exterior skin of each Metalico unit is corrugated metal with a galvalume finish. An existing adobe structure that once provided housing for factory workers in the early 1900s has been adaptively reused as perimeter site walls along with distressed wood and corrugated metal salvaged from a demolished building on a neighboring site.

Architect: Rob Paulus Architects