House addition in Bigues
Addition in a house built in 1950. The new volume has a minimum curved stair and rises above the pre-existing building repeating the two-sided roof shape but eliminating the barbican to increase the delicacy of the contact with the sky. Inside, the first floor is divided in 4 spaces following a cross disposition three of which are rooms.
Addition in a house built in 1950. It was included in a governmental plan for the construction of fifteen "cheap houses" in the small village of Bigues i Riells in Catalonia. The original house had an area of 40-square-meter and consisted of a small one-floor construction covered by a two-sided roof placed in a small plot, close to a stream. Currently, the house is one of the few that still has one storey high, although in 2003 an addition was built in the ground floor.
The project adds a new level that occupies 2/3 of the pre-existing building, leaving visible part of the old roof. The new volume has a minimum curved stair and rises above the pre-existing building repeating the two-sided roof shape but eliminating the barbican to increase the delicacy of the contact with the sky. The two-sided roof shape and white colour links the new part of the house with the old one. On the contrary, the texture of the manual brick allows the recognition of the addition maintaining a fragile balance between mimicry and distinction.
Inside, the first floor is divided in 4 spaces following a cross disposition three of which are rooms. Every room takes advantage of the central height of the roof with lofts. The structure has solid brick walls and wood panels roofs. To compensate the cork insulation placed inside the walls, the partition walls are made by solid bricks in vertical position that ensured thermal inertia inside the house.
