Spanish studio Workplace for Strategic Areas has refurbished a Nineteenth-century housing block in Barcelona, unlocking a beforehand uncared for yard house with a brand new public courtyard linked by criss-crossing steel walkways.
The block, known as La Carboneria, sits inside Barcelona’s Eixample district, recognized for its well-known gridded city plan designed by Ildefons Cedrá.
Through the design of the housing block, its location was topic to plans by town to chop by way of the district with massive, vast boulevards, just like the city plans applied in Paris in the midst of the Nineteenth century.
When plans for a few of these grand boulevards had been scrapped, La Carboneria was left with a “ghost facade” that was later enclosed by new buildings to type a darkish, triangular courtyard at its rear.
Madrid-based Workplace for Strategic Areas, led by architect Ángel Borrego Cubero, was tasked with reconfiguring the considerably awkward city situation of the condominium block, which had been left empty following the eviction of squatters in 2014.
“[The original architect] was compelled to plan facades to all 4 sides of the constructing, not sure the place the principle streets could be and which one his constructing would face,” defined the observe.
“Over a century and a half later, the facade that confronted the never-built boulevard needed to be recovered, its bigger home windows unblocked, even when they now neglected two intersecting social gathering partitions as a substitute of Barcelona’s model of the Champs Elysées,” it continued.
Creating a brand new public house on the rear of the constructing, the block’s stairwell and raise core was relocated out of the constructing and linked again into the newly opened facade by steel walkways.
This organisation creates a brand new double-aspect situation for the flats that now face the general public courtyard to the rear and the road on the entrance. A toilet and storage block aligned with an current load-bearing wall sits on the centre of the constructing.
“The constructing appears to have been turned inside out. Its most placing facade is hidden inside a triangular courtyard and, to make it accessible, its stairwell and elevator have been moved from the within of the constructing to the furthest nook of this patio,” defined the observe.
“The walkways that be a part of each parts make the patio work as a stunning, tridimensional public house for the neighbours,” it continued.
As a lot as potential, the unique construction of the condominium constructing was retained and bolstered, with solely the roof needing changing.
Contained in the residences, traces of the outdated constructing – corresponding to wooden beam ceilings and uncovered brick partitions – have been refinished and painted. These are juxtaposed towards up to date parts together with wood panelling and brightly tiled flooring within the kitchens.
“Though the heritage rules relevant allowed us to intestine out the whole constructing besides the facades, the unique construction of the constructing was preserved as a lot as potential,” stated the observe.
Different renovation tasks accomplished by Workplace for Strategic Areas embrace the transformation of a former industrial constructing in Madrid right into a workspace for artistic startups.
Elsewhere in Barcelona, Parramon + Tahull renovated an condominium within the metropolis’s Gracia neighbourhood and added birch plywood joinery and ceramic tiling
The images is by Simona Rota.
