Casa CM2

Iñaki Bergera

• Architects

The project restores a house located in a neighbourhood built in the 1940s by the OSH (Obra Sindical del Hogar), and adapts it to contemporary living while recovering and reinterpreting its memory.

Externally, the house respectfully preserves the original form, colours, and layout of openings, but the whole covering incorporates a significant thickness of thermal insulation that, together with a new aerothermal system and underfloor heating, provides it with a great energy efficiency.

Some of the most unique existing elements, such as the grapevines, the wooden stairs, the sloping roof of the former attic, and the vaulted ceiling of a volume added to the original house decades later, are prominently incorporated into the new home. These diverse layers of time are not only reinterpreted in a contemporary way, both spatially and functionally, but also keep alive the memory of this place.

photo_credit Iñaki Bergera — Iñaki Bergera

Thus, the old grapevines give rise to a new porch overlooking the southern garden. A lightweight galvanized steel structure creates a new place that bridges the interior and the exterior, regulating the light and temperature of the house according to the season and the needs of the occupants.

A white glass covering embraces the original central pinewood staircase, a storage space, and even a secret passage, freeing up the rest of the ground floor and generating multiple reflections and nuances depending on the movement and the climatic conditions. In this way, the exterior nature is brought into the house through our senses, while creating a flexible space that blurs the boundaries and can be used in multiple ways according to the needs.

The attic floor, in poor condition, is removed, allowing for a vertical expansion of the first-floor spaces. This also enables the original stairwell to become a skylight and visual connection between different areas of the house, thanks to the creation of several openings. Once again, space is created by emptying and removing what already existed.