House renovation in Gracia / Parramon + Tahull Arquitectes

House renovation in Gracia / Parramon + Tahull Arquitectes

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Text description provided by the architects. This is a house for a family of four on the top floor of a 1900s apartment building located in the center of Barcelona’s Gracia district.

The wooden beams are the only original element (a previous renovation had already removed all the original woodwork, floors and panelling). They are stripped and preserved.

A new continuous floor, the same for the whole house, combines the color white with baked clay, small pieces to create a greater feeling of space.

The three facades remain almost unchanged, but the aluminum windows are replaced by wooden windows, like those that existed originally.

Inside this perimeter (ceiling, floor, facades) a new wooden “box” is built whose “outside” includes the kitchen, shelves and storage. Inside, the rooms of the teenage girls are “closed”.

At one end of the floor is the common area (the living room and the dining room). Opposite is the more private space (the parents’ bedroom and bathroom).

Although the available surface is small, each space is precisely designed to allow the interior routes to be fluid and to allow natural light to reach every corner of the house.

The large storage volume, essential in a permanent family home, has also been thought out down to the smallest detail. A large storage room occupies the center of the house and an office area (stolen from the hallway) is reserved for occasional telecommuting. All furnishings are bespoke, using the same range of colors and materials to give the whole a sense of serenity and order.

The materials are natural and durable (marble, mosaic, wood). Thermal comfort is achieved at any time of the year with different strategies: heating by water radiators in winter, artificial air conditioning and cross ventilation in summer, ceiling fans in the off-season.