SANTA AGATA
Conceived in 2019 and built during the long months of confinement, the project of the renovation of an apartment in the neighbourhood of Gracia in Barcelona puts at the centre of the proposal how its spaces will be inhabited. Not only in relation to the needs of its dwellers, a couple of musicians that often rehearse at home, both alone and in the company of others. But also in the arrangement of the pieces of furniture, beyond pure functionality: how they adapt to a configuration of rooms that are narrow and long in their proportions and how they are related and superimposed one to another to create a dynamic continuum of interlaced visions.
From the original floor plan, two rooms with a view to a narrow and quiet street are preserved as they were. The rest of the flat is mostly liberated from partitions to be configured in two spaces separated by a load-bearing wall and communicated via two existing openings. Even if the flat is not particularly large, this operation provides an amplitude to the space that was lacking before. The corridor disappears and an open but hierarchical space allows for the different uses to take place, where made-to-measure pieces of furniture signal areas of life and activity.
These pieces of furniture are anchored to the perimeter to free the centre –leaving enough space to allow for up to 4 or 5 people to rehearse together– and are tilted to transform the perception of space: the hall closet creates a secluded area of access to the bedrooms, the sofa faces the terrace.
The large window towards the block courtyard, which receives sunlight during a large part of the day, is re-thought and transformed into a hybrid piece between façade and furniture. A Hitchcockian “rear window” that faces outwards to the neighbourhood, but which also embraces the living space inside.
The existing flooring is reused, an hydraulic cement tile with a simple pattern which was originally placed rotated 45º from the structure of the apartment. The lack of enough tiles to cover the entirety of the floor area is dealt with by creating a composition of new recycled tiles in one of the rooms.
