This project began 8 years ago, going through very different situations, although the client's desire to leave exposed brick walls remained unalterable. Besides, this four stories (but hardly 20sqm per level) small building from end of XIX century, located in Barcelona’s historic center, had to become a place to live and work.

 Starting from a ruins situation, the construction process, slow and complex, allowed decisions to be made as the essence of the estate was being revealed. Thus, once all floors slabs were demolished and the building was seen as a slender prism formed by very heterogenous masonry walls, the idea of leaving them exposed became conceptual: these four walls are a museum of the building's history, where any trace of its construction and use will be left unaltered in all its crudeness. The new floors-slabs will be supported between the dividing walls, not touching either of the facades: towards the main facade, a sheet of glass will separate them from it; towards the interior one, the stairwell will be a 4-story void linking the entire interior and showing the surprising height of such a slender building. 

Thus, the project is defined, remaining to tag the uses per floor and solve the technical issues: access-kitchen-dining, living, bathroom-dressing, bedroom and terrace form, from bottom to top, the sequence of use. In any case, with the exception of kitchen/bathroom equipment, nothing else occupies the floors, allowing to revert its uses at any time; 7 exposed stainless steel cylinders run the entire height of the building, conducting all installations going through furniture and floors.

In terms of materiality, a certain refinement has been pursued, in opposition to the crude expressiveness of the masonry. Thus, the kitchen is a brass furniture, shiny and with reflections; the bathroom is cladded with lacquered wood in a slightly cream color, with black and brass details; the tiles and wooden floors add warmth and color to the interior; and the lacquered wood ceilings incorporate grids to 'design' these needs. The structure is all white, in search of material abstraction, especially in the staircase, developed as a free-standing cylinder that runs the building’s entire height, offering Piranesian views helped by the diversity of points of view. On the contrary, all the details on the existing walls are raw. 

On top of the stairwell, a skylight introduces a beautiful gradation of light until the lowest strata; towards the façade, the glass sheets bounce the lighting between floors and introduce ever-changing reflections, allowing the façade to be admired at its full height from inside. The main façade was rehabilitated following the dictates of the heritage department. Only at the entrance door were we free to invent a front that reproduces the 3d design of the classic mosaic (much loved by the client) with an exploded layout of rhombuses finished with 3 types of aluminum, which conceals the door and abstracts the entrance.