This commission involved renovating and adapting a traditional two-story house in the Provenza neighborhood in Medellín to transform it into common workspaces and small apartments, sharing services. The house, which had already been converted years ago into the offices of a local real estate company, had a stable structure of load-bearing walls, floors, roofs, and wooden ceilings that we decided to renew and maintain. On the first level, we revitalized the front garden, proposed a new lobby maintaining the existing staircase, and located the shared work areas, private rooms, and shared bathrooms.

On the second level, we designed four apartments with different sizes and natural lighting. These spaces share work and laundry areas. We concentrated the new intervention on the existing backyard, covering it with a triple-height translucent roof and a permeable wooden ceiling, avoiding touching the house's walls. In this way, we generated new activity platforms, expanded the coworking spaces, and connected the apartments with the common areas through a semi-private bridge.

We proposed a new staircase inside the patio, articulating the new spaces with the existing house. We maintained the existing primary tones and colors, light walls, and brown tones, introducing new materials in similar ranges. Finally, we proposed new warm artificial lighting and controlled natural lighting in all spaces.

Team:

Structure: Existing load-bearing wall structure + New metal porch structure.
Materials: Wooden floors and ceilings, exposed concrete floors, ceramic and wood veneers, polycarbonate tiles, and reed slat ceilings.
Architects: Plan:b Architects
Project management: Felipe Mesa + Federico Mesa
Work team: Carlos Blanco, Laura Kate Correa, Verónica Mesa, Helington Ramírez, Juan José Villegas
Builder: Dairo Ateortua
Photo credits: Artefacto