06/05/2011 – We are in the historic center of Sant Andreu in Barcelona, where the urban fabric is made of small, narrow and very long plots. The house designed by Jordi Antonijoan Roset of Ferrolan LAB occupies one of the narrowest sites in the neighborhood: only 3.7 meters wide, but 25 meters long, with frontage on both the street and the rear side.
The size of the lot, its position and its north-south orientation shaped the design. Ferrolan LAB turned those constraints into advantages, making the treatment of light the central premise of the project and developing the house vertically.
The ground floor contains a garage and a small cinema room. On the mezzanine are two connected rooms and a studio space around the patio garden. The first floor contains the dining and living area on one side and the kitchen on the other, with a gallery that can become a terrace in summer. The second floor holds the bedrooms, while the roof becomes a terrace with a swimming pool.
The rooms are arranged as large, open, visually connected spaces. Double heights around the patio allow the eye to cross the house, while the plan remains flexible and reconfigurable.
The intention was to create a house that could enjoy the outdoors while escaping the stress of city life. It had to open fully to the exterior and still protect the intimacy of the interior.
The two facades use large openings in different ways. On the south facade, adjustable brise-soleil elements control sunlight and privacy. On the north facade, large glass blocks let light pass through while blurring views.
In this way, the house opens toward the city mainly to collect light, while hiding its interior from direct contact with the street and its noise. The inner patio becomes the true protagonist of the house, the most immediate link with the outside. From the rooms, it is possible to see the sky, the ground-floor garden and the roof terrace with its pool.
Materials such as wood, stone, warm-colored finishes and wallpaper make the rooms comfortable and defined, even though the house is almost entirely open. As one approaches the patio, the materials become lighter and more stripped back, leaving structure visible and using glass, steel, iron and white finishes to maximize transparency, lightness and brightness.
The material study was part of the project from the first sketch, not a final decorative layer. Ferrolan LAB sought unity between architecture and interior design. The roof becomes the second key facade: a space disconnected from the city, almost like the projection of an isolated single-family home, an urban retreat.
Anna Lohan
miranda_shida
