Rehabilitating a historic building
The transformation of this building posed the significant challenge of achieving, through the process of rehabilitation and merging of the two houses, the adaptation of this set of buildings from the last century to current uses and needs. The project has not only made it possible to adjust the interior to the dimensions of modern apartments, but it has also succeeded in creating the optical illusion of facing a single building on both facades, the main facade on Passeig de Gràcia and the rear on Riera de Sant Miquel.
The merging of both properties has been carried out by hollowing out the central bay, that is, the architectural space between the two load-bearing walls of the two adjacent houses, which originally coincided with the staircases of both houses. In this way, a new courtyard has been opened on one side, and on the other, a new off-center core of stairs and elevators has been placed, resolving access to the various levels existing between the two properties. Currently, the building comprises two basement floors, a ground floor, a main floor, and four upper floors, with parking spaces, a commercial premise, and residences respectively.
The existing structure of wooden beams in the first bays adjacent to the facades has been functionally replaced by Noubau steel beams. Similarly, the load-bearing walls parallel to the facades have been supported by metal frame porticos to allow for clearer distributions.
Currently, the building is the result of the union and rehabilitation of two semi-detached houses carried out by the technical team of Núñez i Navarro in collaboration with the Barcelona architecture firm OAB.
Both the main facade on Passeig de Gràcia and the facade on Riera de Sant Miquel street are the original facades of the building, which have been preserved and fully restored. The restoration of the Passeig de Gràcia facade has taken into account the maintenance of its protected elements. Likewise, on the facade of Riera de Sant Miquel, less ornate than that of Passeig de Gràcia and originally defined as a facade typical of an interior gallery block in L'Eixample, the proportion of openings and their unique elements of interest, such as cast iron pillars and beams, have been preserved, and a new facade of lightweight movable shutters has been created in front of it, allowing protection from the western sun and acting as a visual filter for the nearest neighbors. In this way, the original proportion of the shutters of L’Eixample has been recovered, with the opening of the vertical 'fold' and the materiality of wood, characteristic of the roller shutters in the inner blocks of the city.
Moreover, this work has allowed the redefinition of the original typological scheme of through-block housing, that is, buildings that have facades with opposite orientations, with excessive depth, half of the facade facing the street and small courtyards; and to incorporate new floors that double the facade facing C/ Riera de Sant Miquel or Passeig de Gràcia and have a very generous interior courtyard facade.
The construction of the new decentralized core also includes a through shop with dual orientation, featuring a large display window facing Passeig de Gràcia and Riera de Sant Miquel.