Barcelona, Spain

Cal Drapaire is a light-filled renovation by Parramon + Tahull Arquitectes located in a large block of apartments that were built by Modest Feu in the early twentieth century on the Gran Via in Barcelona, on the edge of the mountain of Montjuïc.

It is a very visible building due to its large size, known in the neighborhood as “Cal Drapaire,” and is included in the city’s Heritage Catalogue.

The developer was a wealthy ragpicker, Pau Fornt, who built this mega building with six stairwells, ten floors high, and 240 apartments for rent.

It is said that he himself lived in the attic.

Although they were low-income housing, the construction is very solid and the spaces are large compared to similar estates built in the nearby Eixample at the same time.

The architect, Modest Feu, is the author of many interesting modernist and noucentist buildings, almost all located in the Sants district.

Each stairwell has two floors facing the street (with a lot of noise and little sun) and two facing the interior of the block (protected from the noise of Gran Via and sunny).

The house to be renovated corresponds to the last ones, it is on a high floor and has a lot of light.

The intervention in the house is based on making the most of the best possible space, a closed gallery, facing southeast, very spacious.

The wooden exterior carpentry had already been replaced in a previous renovation by another aluminum with thermal glass and it was considered reasonable to keep it unchanged.

The positions of the main bathroom and the kitchen, which is left open, are exchanged.

The division between the living room and the master bedroom consists of birch wood furniture with sliding doors and an upper glass panel, which allow communication between both spaces in a fluid way.

Several pieces of furniture are made for storage, dressing room and kitchen, combining birch plywood and white color.

All of them are simple furniture, but were made custom for each space.

The uniformity of materials unifies and gives a sense of order to the whole.

The original flooring was a glued parquet, damaged by woodworm, which was completely removed.

Under this was discovered a very simple hydraulic floor, unrecoverable due to the glue.

A porcelain stoneware floor was installed in the wet areas and parquet in the rest.

Project: House Renovation in Cal Drapaire
Architects: Parramon + Tahull Arquitectes
Original Architect: Modest Feu
Builder: J.M. Aguilar
Client: Private
Photographer: Judith Casas Sayós