Barcelona, Spain
Commissioned by the Poch family, who has lived in this same house since its construction at the end of the 19th century, h3o architects renovate this art-nouveau house following the upcycling trend; which means reusing to improve the functionality of the object but also on transforming to enhance new spatial and aesthetic attributes.
Located at the end of Passage Frigola, the house has undergone several transformations that have mutilated it, the house was originally conceived as a summer house among gardens, but it has come to be enclosed between tall buildings, losing the back garden in the 60s when a gigantic block was built.
Thus, while its environment has changed to the point of constraining it, its interior has maintained the original spatial configuration: the living room, dining room, and kitchen at the back – formerly opened to a large garden and now suffocated and dark due to in the presence of the massive buildings of Travessera de Dalt-, and the bedrooms at the front, maintaining their contact with the access courtyard.
Marta, the new generation of the Poch family, is ready to follow the family tradition by living in her old house.
To improve it, it calls for recovering the lost enjoyment of the outdoors, while preserving the heritage value and taking advantage of its elements.
The architects invest in the house out of respect for heritage so that the living-dining room recovers the link with the outside.
They update the spatiality of this area of the house through a series of openings that, like large steps between rooms, configure a single fluid space able to preserve the essence of the old rooms thanks to the maintenance and respect for the ceilings, floors, and wall structure.
The kitchen is the protagonist of this new articulation between the series of rooms.
The domestic fact of cooking and sharing is emphasized in a completely open space that highlights the heritage character of the house.
They enhance the spatial experience with the mystery induced by a new set of doors that follow the original forms, through steps and windows that could have always been here.
Two of the doors are given new life, one of the crescents is moved and the remaining crescent is cut to produce two new symmetrical doors, behind which service spaces are hidden.
Thus, the back of the house, shadowy and hidden, takes on a new identity determined by the mystery that awakens the tension between the different steps and forms.
Project: Refurbishment of an Art-Nouveau House in Gracia
Architects: h3o architects
Design Team: Miquel Ruiz Planella, Joan Gener González, Adrià Orriols Camps, Ramon Illan Salas, and Marcel Heras Toledo
Client: The Poch Family
Photography: José Hevia
