Nil House
An old carpentry of the neighborhood of Gracia was the origin of the place where we had to intervene to create a home that had the main difficulty the entrance of natural light and the lack of airing.
False ceilings, small windows and heterogeneous pavements were part of the various interventions that this business place had suffered over time. High ceilings and metal joists with ceramic vault were the elements that made our project an interesting starting point.
In order to implement our goal, it was necessary to create a central courtyard, the main axis of this house that would allow us to implement day and night areas. This was possible thanks to the demolition of one of the intermediate volumes and the connection through a glass corridor between the two opposing parts of the house. Its original structure of pine beams was revealed, which from now would make part of the new envelope that separates us from the hard environment outside. The courtyard created from zero was supposed to be a disconnection space from the city rhythm and it would allow a visual connection from different parts of the apartment.
A large opening was made in the living room with a pivoting iron door, which gives way to the central patio and incorporates the living room to the outside once it is fully folded. The incorporation of glass as a closure of the corridor continues with this intention. The use of abundant and thick vegetation naturalized the space.
We decided to use noble materials and from the original moment the space was built, such as wood, iron and cement. Revitalize those materials that had been coated and forgotten, such as brick walls. Inside of the house, we used natural whitewashed pine wood for pavements. In corridor, main bedroom and patio, we choose a continuous cement floor.
The great height of the ceilings allowed us to design an attic that fulfilled the needs of being able to create a functional three-room program. As much in the later volume of the house as in the great majority of the space of the interior, this was the solution adopted. Through a slight stairs made of iron strip, built-in the wall it’s possible to accede to the attic which slab floor is made of sheets of solid pine wood supported by circular steel straps till the ceiling. The double height game looks for the balance to obtain at all times the sensation of amplitude and the penetration of the light to the inner zones.
In the backyards bedroom, the access to the mezzanine floor is through a cat staircase. A large pine wood door with different subdivisions gives light and views of the central courtyard. Part of the furniture is designed with solid pine wood, the main project’s material, creating a desk in the attic that transforms into a dining room on the first floor, besides surface copper lamps in the brick wall corredor.