A Blue Light Well With Hole Punches Runs Through the Center of This Barcelona Home

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Venture Particulars:

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Architect: Raul Sanchez Architects / @raulsanchezarchitects

Footprint: 969 sq. toes

Structural Engineer: Diagonal Estructuras

Engineering Guide: Mares Engyniers

Photographer: José Hevia

From the Architect: “The garments of Barcelona’s Eixample bourgeoisie have been as soon as washed within the wells of Calle Aiguafreda, one of the picturesque streets remaining within the metropolis right now. Slim two-story homes accommodated the washerwomen and their households, who went out every day to their wells to hand-scrub garments they solely ever touched to scrub. One among these small, humble homes, having misplaced its unique laundry function, was restored for a pair and their new child child. Piercing by the constructing, a brand new properly—this time a light-weight properly topped by a skylight—illuminates the semi-subterranean floor flooring areas, anchoring the circulation of your entire home round it. Perforated by a matrix of oculi resembling raindrops and coated in shiny blue lacquer, it revives the reminiscence of the unique wells, remodeling it into a recent, lyrical, and useful architectural factor.

“The home faces two streets: the aforementioned Calle Aiguafreda and Calle Granollers. A drop-in degree between them means entry from Granollers happens at mid-level on the bottom flooring. Right here, a newly constructed staircase affords two flights on the entrance: one main right down to the decrease degree (with entry to Aiguafreda) and one other main as much as the primary flooring. This higher degree teams the bedrooms and a rest room, all organized across the gentle properly, which asserts itself because the spatial organizer by a definite rotation in flooring plan. This rotational geometry dynamically opens and closes views and pathways, eliminating the sensation of a protracted hallway. On this flooring, the oculi on all 4 sides of the sunshine properly allow cross-views between rooms and between ranges. Additionally they admit direct daylight from the roof skylight, which shifts throughout the faces of the sunshine properly all through the day, bringing the shiny blue lacquer to life.

“The bottom flooring is configured as a single open-plan dwelling, eating, and kitchen space, alongside a small research. Folding doorways made from wooden and rice paper—a characteristic cherished by the consumer following time spent dwelling in Japan—enable the research to be joined with or partitioned from the principle dwelling space. A compact powder room completes this flooring, set at a 45-degree angle to hide its door from the principle dwelling house. Adjoining to the Aiguafreda entrance, a rotated, floating kitchen island clad in mirror introduces a way of fragility with out disrupting the open really feel of the house.

“Whereas the home takes root within the historical past of its web site, the fabric palette continues this dialogue: terra-cotta tiles on the bottom flooring lengthen the normal exterior clay paving; coloured glazed tiles type the washbasins and loo wall coverings; reddish lacquers and paints evoke the normal clay of close by orchards; the shiny blue lacquer end of the sunshine properly straight references water, whereas the round perforations summary water droplets splashing inside; and mirrored finishes on doorways and the kitchen island, with their refined distortion, nod to liquid reflections.

“The development preserved each factor that imparted character and reminiscence to the dwelling, whereas integrating up to date energy-saving techniques: an aerothermal system for local weather management, heating, and scorching water; new floor flooring slab layers to cut back inside moisture; enhanced thermal insulation on the roof; and upgraded thermal and acoustic efficiency throughout facades and celebration partitions. Moreover, the operable skylight topping the sunshine properly harnesses the stack impact—drawing heat air out in summer time and capturing thermal features in winter—thus turning the challenge’s central narrative characteristic right into a useful, sustainable software.”