Refurbishment of the ground floor, first floor and entrance of a 19th century building on the Carrer de Sant Pere Mitjà, a four and a half meters wide street within the old city fabric of La Ribera, Barcelona, into a workshop and studio space.

The historical space is best characterized as a traditional ground floor typology of a workshop-storage from the XIX century of 4,5m wide and 16m long and divided in two parts: a public part with a double height of 5 meters in the front, with a small mezzanine, and a lower storage space in the back. The front was screened from the street by a 5-meter-tall monumental wooden door, depriving the space from natural light and a (visual) connection with the street.

Therefore, the main challenges were to generate a light-filled, open space, to insert natural light and transparency, to amplify the existing space and to introduce a relation between interior and exterior, which implied to rethink the relation between private and public.

Through a careful dissection process, removing some elements of the central block and transforming it into a series of parallel corridors, the space is articulated with a more open relation between the front and the back. The adaptation of the monumental wooden door into a folding door plays a central role in the project, in combination with a new (façade-filling) door of steel and glass. At the back facade a small patio has been created. This patio acts as a lantern and brings natural light, as well as natural ventilation.

More information: a f a s i a  

Architects
rotative studio

Team 
Eulàlia Martin 
Estk Estudio structural calculation

Photos
Victor Lacima
Xavi Creus