House renovation in Calabria Street / AMOO

House renovation in Calabria Street / AMOO

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Text description provided by the architects. The house is located on the second floor of a building built in 1950 in the Nova Esquerra district of Eixample, Barcelona. The building has 4 doors per landing and is intended for middle-class housing at reduced prices, as described by the architect FJ Barba Corsini in the report of the municipal works file.

The structure of the house is made up of load-bearing walls, with 6 openings parallel to the street, including the 4 facades: the two main ones and the two belonging to the interior courtyards. The floors are divided into 2 by the central load-bearing wall, which is joined by a small installation. The house is accessible from one end and its main facade overlooks the inner courtyard of the block. It consists of a living-dining room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom, in a conventional and crushed space. The total area is 47.59 m2.

The project aims to eliminate speculative distribution and, by removing one of its rooms, it uses the small central ventilation patio as a central area around which to revolve.

A shoring is proposed in the load-bearing wall which provided for circulation around the center, and the rest of the partitions are demolished. Integrating the load-bearing wall and the patio, the surrounding volume of the toilets is proposed, with a continuous strip of kitchen and cupboards on the partition opposite the entrance.

The strategy which, as usual, is cut short by the refusal of the inhabitants to carry out any type of structural intervention, however minimal, forces us to turn the project around without losing its essence. The inconvenience does not prevent solving the planned program, as well as the unique characteristics of the project: in particular, to accommodate the owner’s collection of more than 1,400 CDs and 1,200 vinyl records, which is why ad hoc built-in furniture is designed.

On the material and chromatic level, the north-east orientation of the exterior facade alone makes the choice of flooring towards a light surface that allows the rare incoming light to be reflected, while the color of the ceiling is used as an element of warmth. and comfort. This tone extends to the polygonal volume of the bathroom, softening its edges and contrasting it with a bluish tone that emerges inside and extends to specific points. Metallic elements contrast and nuance the almost milky and warm atmosphere of the house.