CASA TD
The growth of mass tourism in the second half of the XX century devastated the urban fabric of many towns on the southern coast of Catalonia. In L’Ampolla, old fishermen’s houses were demolished to make way for real estate speculation, erasing the original vernacular typology.
Located in a residential area on the outskirts of this village near the Ebro delta, our project aims to be both local and different. It does not seek continuity with its context but rather challenges the built environment. The new dwelling is presented as a freestanding entity that claims the lost heritage and reinterprets it from a contemporary perspective. Our references include the old cottages of the Ebro Delta, with whitewashed facades and thatched roofs, the disappeared seafront of L’Ampolla and the unintentional beauty of agricultural sheds.
Starting from this essential language and meeting the client’s desire to incorporate a viewpoint towards the “Fangar” lighthouse, we compose a set of three staggered volumes both in plan and in section. The first volume, on the ground floor with a large pitched zinc roof, forms a longitudinal barrier with the street and isolates the garden. The second volume centralises vertical circulation and rises three storeys, reaching a terrace and green roof overlooking the sea. The third one, facing south, creates a small, shaded courtyard on the ground floor. This way, the built ensemble takes over the plot and establishes a sequence of spaces and crossed views that add complexity to the overall experience.
The programme consists of large and accessible spaces, designed to be easily adapted to possible changes in use. The distribution of the house, with over 400m2 built, allows it to be inhabited by zones according to the needs of its inhabitants.
The polished concrete pavement on the ground floor extends outward, forming continuous platforms and strengthening the relationship between the house and the garden. A concrete plinth runs along the entire built perimeter and is extruded to create built-in furniture elements. The facade, coated in lime mortar, responds to Mediterranean typology. The openings simulate the depth of stone masonry walls, bringing storage and facilities to the outer plane and reducing sun exposure during the summer months. The sustainability approach combines simple methods, typical of traditional architecture, with the installation of solar panels, mechanical ventilation, and an ASHP system, achieving high energy efficiency.
The interior establishes a connection with the chromaticism of the Mediterranean landscape, the earth, and the native vegetation of the garden project that surrounds it.
The spaces are distributed according to the building's openings, towards the garden and the sea, extending the interior to the exterior, ensuring different living areas for summer and winter, protected by the building and its pergolas. The interior is austere, designed in harmony with its intended use and its relationship with the garden in terms of chromatics, materials, and space. Surfaces, furniture, and equipment are functional, combining wood, ceramics, colour, textiles, raffia, and steel. The project avoids staying superficially on a mere chromatic combination, also emphasizing future personalisation by its inhabitants, leaving temporarily empty spaces.
The garden is enclosed by a low wall along the entire perimeter of the plot, designed with mediterranean native plants and trees accustomed to long periods of drought. The swimming pool, is designed to integrate into the vegetation, framed by concrete platforms that extend and connect with the building and the interior of the residence. This connection between the ground floor interior and the garden situates, organises, and integrates all the equipment and furniture according to its views and use.
The objective of the project was to establish, through the spaces, a relationship between urban and rural landscapes, between the countryside and the sea.
