A home-studio for a publisher
Housing
Client: Private
Location: Catarroja (València)
Date: 2018
Team: Fent Estudi Coop. V. (architecture), Ricardo Ortí (structural engineering), Miguel Navarro (direction of works), Blas Ramón S.L. (construction), Muycarp (carpentry)
Photography: Milena Villalba
Publications: Veredes / Plataforma Arquitectura
The property is spread over two floors and shares walls with two independently owned buildings. Prior to the conversion, the ground floor featured multiple rooms that were dark and gloomy as a result of over-division of the available space.
The upper floor is given over to an attic, built subsequently. The owner, a retired publisher, wished to transform the family home into a home-studio which would be better suited to his current living requirements. First off, the interior courtyard was pared back via the removal of various elements that had come to colonise it over the years, giving this space far greater prominence, attracting more sunlight and promoting natural ventilation.
Work was then carried out exclusively on the ground floor, creating two independent areas: the domestic one, on the street side, and the studio, at the back of the courtyard. In sympathy with the existing structure, traditional construction methods and materials were used to ensure a harmonious overall experience throughout the house. Load-bearing walls with beams and barrel vaults, along with wood, iron and ceramic… all features which are beautiful in their simplicity and lack of pretention. In this sense, vegetation can be considered as another material, whose function here is to bring increased vitality to the open central space: a flowering ash takes centre stage, whilst aromatic plants and a creeping ivy provide texture and begin to carpet the lateral walls.
Finally, the house welcomed back its original wooden doors, an antique chest of drawers, the inhabitant’s mother’s old bed frame and a good smattering of other objects of great sentimental value, all of which live side by side with the new in this reinvented reality as it continues to accompany the evolution of those who inhabit it.
