The surface of the deconstructed space is reproduced in a new volume, wrapped in an enclosure made of V-shaped steel profiles. This not only reinforces the lightness of the addition, but also supports its structure.
A third volume with a wooden exterior completes the composition, complementing the stone and steel in colour and texture and allowing it to be read as a distinct added box.
Description of project by Puig · Mir
The ancient church of Callús was built on a primitive Romanesque church documented from the 10th century. Together with the neighboring castle of Godmar, they were the center of the collective life of the town until the end of the 19th century, when the activity of the textile industry consolidated the new settlement along the banks of the river Cardener. Neglect and disaffection to the cult, confined uses of the church in prison during the Civil War, and later as a pig farm for decades.
This millennial journey has added many additions to the original built volumes, producing confused overlaps that masked the old Romanesque façade of the church.
Our concept of action is based on the deconstruction of the elements without any value and denatures the original volume. This emptying strategy clears new relationships between the parts of the existing construction, affirming them, showing their particular spatial and material character.
Planting a tree in the new patio founds the new center of gravity of the whole, marking the passage of the seasons from the same "interior" of the building.
This emptying operation of the obsolete construction exchanges its surface into a new building, bounded to the same de-built surface. Form and material of this new construction is related to the old buildings and their natural environment, while responding also to the application of passive energy systems and recovery of natural resources: rainwater storage, sun protection and cross ventilation, among other variables.
The choice of a laminar V-shaped profile shapes the outer skin of the new enclosures. This exterior layer does not only define skin, but supports the inner structure. The geometric arrangement of the profiles allows changing aspects depending on the point of view and the time of day. As the new volume approaches its extremes, it is lightened and de-massified, filtering light and air. The result is a slender steel construction that contrasts with the massive and thick stone annexed.
The body that houses the services, facing north, is cladded with wood, creating an association with the old stone and the slenderness of the steel, allowing a clear reading of the different volumes.
The built-up set is no longer the accumulation of a confused monolithic conglomerate, but a sum of structures with its own identity.
