Memory of project
The project is located in the neighbourhood of Vallvidrera, a suburb that towers over the city of Barcelona in the natural park of Collserola, in very small plot with an irregular geometry and steep slope, located between a valley and a pine forest.
The clients, a retired couple who lived for years on the same plot, had decided to build a new home that was to be modern, functional and easy to maintain.
The aims of the project were to achieve the maximum built area, adjusted costs and to optimize the orientation of the windows into the valley while protecting privacy.
For this we created a compact volume with three floors with a geometry that comes from the shape and slope of the plot itself, continuing with the local typology of sloping roofs and widening on the upper floors to win an additional area.
Formally this volume is a cube in which each side is divided into four quadrants. The upper sides are extruded upwards to form a sharply bent roof. The facades move outwards looking for the best orientation towards the landscape or the protection from the neighbours' sight.
The facade consists of a single continuous white skin wrapped around blind walls, roof and facade holes. Thus, the fixed glass enclosures and the perforated aluminum shutters, are completely leveled up with the front part of the skin.
The pedestrian and vehicle access from the street, at the bottom of the plot, takes place through a Corten steel fence.
The outdoor spaces are formed by two terraces, one in the front at street level and a higher one giving access to the house, connected by a stairway. The remaining land has been triangulated forming slopes and ramps. The ground has been paved with typical local Colserolla rusty slate, with long narrow pieces in the flat areas or small irregular pieces in the sloped parts.
Inside the house, the floor plan is also divided into four quadrants marked by the structural walls, which organize the different rooms and the staircase.
On the entrance floor, you walk through a first bedroom and a bathroom, to a double height space formed by the kitchen and the dining room, which is the true heart of the home.
A large stained elm wood piece of furniture stands in front of the whole inner wall, forming the furniture for the kitchen and dining area, and extending continuously to form the main bedroom's closet on the top floor. From this space, through two large windows facing the landscape, you have the best views over the valley. The staircase, located in the centre of the floor, climbs to an attic space, which is an additional not computed area of the house. On this floor are located the main bedroom and bathroom, facing the pine forest in the back of the plot. On the lower floor are the spaces for leisure and guests, communicating with the front terrace. On the half-buried back part are the technical and storage spaces.
Text.- YLAB Architects
CREDITS.-
Architects.- Tobias Laarmann y Yolanda Yuste López.
Plot area.- 286,91 m².
Built area.- 152 m².
Location.- Vallvidrera, Barcelona, Spain.
