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Architects: Estudi E. Torres Pujol
- Area: 265 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Adrià Goula
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Manufacturers: Laufen, Aluminios Barcelona, Cortizo, FERRÉS, Persiana Barcelona
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Lead Architect: Esteve Torres Pujol
Text description provided by the architects. It’s not a garage! A common garage door accompanied in the composition by a round hole is what we find on the main façade and the truth is that it does not clarify at all how the building works, nor what is its use or program. The reality is that behind the door there is a family house between party walls located in Ciutadella, on the island of Menorca.
Once through the door, the access path to the house leads through an idyllic pseudo-open outdoor space, with a wooden pergola placed at a double height that protects us on our initial journey. From this space, we can see the real façade of the house which is a 7 m setback from the public road. Therefore, this indicates that the volume of the house is located in the middle of the plot, in this way privacy is achieved in the openings of the façade and, above all, it allows to regulate of the temperature inside thanks to the quality cross ventilation that is enjoyed throughout the house.
As it is a plot nestled between two dividing walls without too much separation between them, it was decided that a sole living-dining-kitchen space be located on the ground floor that covers the entire width of the plot and communicates with the rear garden through a porch. Two large windows, one that looks out towards the back garden and the other towards the access patio, open accordion-style, and thanks to them, this entire interior space can function as if it were an even larger porch when they are fully open. On the first floor, there is a bedroom with a bathroom and its terrace, a dressing room, and an office (also with a terrace). An art workshop has been projected on the second floor.
The vertical communication core has located in the middle of the built volume in order to economize the surface of the corridors and distributors. It consists of a folded sheet metal staircase with 2 sections between each floor. The railings have been specially designed for the home, they have been made with different wooden slats of variable sections and have been placed alternately, turned one from the other, creating a game and a special movement that makes them unique.
In this project, the materials have been chosen with special sensitivity, valuing sustainability, origin, and texture. Proof of this can be seen in the kitchen, in the carpentry, and in the cabinets. But it is necessary to point out with special interest the hexagonal clay tiles that have been chosen for the paving and tiling of the bathrooms. Pieces that stand out for their simplicity and that are so traditional in the popular architecture of the island as well as of the Mediterranean, that they already form a very important part of its history.
