Calle Xàtiva 20 stands at the edge of Valencia’s historic Ciutat Vella, forming part of the urban frame of the València Nord train station—often the first façade visitors see on arrival. Built in 1925 and later converted to offices (from 1975 onward), the building accumulated interior partitions and incompatible additions that obscured its residential logic.
The commission required transforming the building’s former use into a specialized 15-unit apartment-hotel that could meet contemporary hospitality standards while complying with strict heritage protections and the Special Plan for the Protection of Ciutat Vella. The core challenge was to reconcile current life-safety, acoustic performance, and universal accessibility requirements with a protected structure where intrusive structural interventions were not an option.
The project is driven by the idea that the most authentic transformation is one that reveals the building’s identity rather than replacing it. The design begins with selective subtraction, removing post-1975 office layers to recover a legible residential layout and re-establish the rhythm of the original window bays. This positions the new use as a continuation of the building’s history rather than a disruption.
Spatially, the building’s geometry—a broad street façade with limited depth—naturally supports compact, well-lit units and consolidated service bands. Fifteen units are organized across five floors with a clear, efficient circulation scheme. A decisive technical move is the introduction of a second means of egress: instead of cutting through protected fabric, a new stair is inserted within a secondary structural bay, preserving original beams and load-bearing walls. Barrier-free access from the street is achieved by reconfiguring the ground-floor lobby and incorporating space from an adjacent commercial unit to create a continuous route to the elevator.
To improve acoustic insulation and fire protection, the floor assemblies were repaired and upgraded. This required removing ornamental ceilings to access the slabs; the molded plasterwork was then restored and reinstalled, maintaining the historic interiors while enhancing performance. In parallel, the units are serviced through independent, prefabrication-ready modules that do not load or modify the primary structure, consolidating bathrooms, kitchens, heating and cooling, and ventilation into discrete elements that can be installed with minimal disruption to protected fabric.
Material strategy reinforces continuity. Existing elements are repaired rather than replaced, including the artisanal restoration of marble, wrought iron, and wood in the main stair. Façades are treated with breathable mineral paint and lime-based mortars to respect historic masonry behavior. High-performance wooden carpentry replicas improve thermal performance without altering the architectural expression. Building services are consolidated through a centralized aerothermal system located in a rooftop machine room, replacing a visually intrusive enclosure and keeping equipment out of prominent views of the historic skyline.
The completed project demonstrates a heritage-led approach to hospitality conversion: modern standards are met through precise, limited interventions placed in secondary zones, while the building’s architectural memory—surfaces, proportions, and craftsmanship—remains legible and lived-in. As a prominent threshold to the city, Calle Xàtiva 20 returns to active use with a renewed civic presence and a long-term, energy-conscious future.
