Mas Totosaus
Reactivation of Mas Totosaus to transform it into the new Reus Family Welfare and Guidance Service.
Reuse and recycling, today more than ever, to rewrite the history of cities while preserving their existing urban fabric, their memory, and their cultural heritage. A dance between restoration and transformation that allows a former bourgeois dwelling to be opened to the public.
Designed by the architect Pere Caselles in 1906 “for Doña Elvira Figueras, widow of Totosaus”, this small art noveau temple with a square floor plan is part of the group of “masos” originally located on the outskirts of the city of Reus, probably conceived as summer homes for the bourgeoisie. Today, inevitably immersed in the fabric of the city, the Mas Totosaus is integrated into a lively and leafy park within the urban fabric, surrounded by remarkable trees that seem to want to protect it from the noise of the city, evoking the natural environment in which it was conceived at the beginning of the 20th century, near the Riudoms road.
According to the original documentation obtained in the historical research, Mas Totosaus was intended to be a much more ambitious and monumental building. It was to have a semi-basement floor, a ground floor and a first floor, incorporating a tower on one side. Due to unknown circumstances, only the semi-basement and ground floor were completed.
This small Palladian temple, which stands on a podium to allow ventilation of the half-buried floor plan, is articulated around a main hall presided over by a stone fireplace, around which all the other spaces orbit. On the outside, two stone staircases lead to the two entrances of the Mas, which are announced by two characteristic large circular openings. In the interior, a fantastic Nolla mosaic floor runs through the rooms, marking the spaces. On the ceiling a generous vaulted ceiling gives air and presence in orthogonal spaces of contained dimensions.
After 10 years of abandonment and some unfortunate actions that caused the appearance of important pathologies, Mas Totosaus now belongs to the council. The project, promoted by Reus City Council, aims to reactivate and enhance the value of this modernist “maset” to transform it into a new public facility for the city, the Reus Family Care and Guidance Service.
Although the building has no heritage listing, the restoration and transformation intervention aims to recognise its identity and uniqueness. It acts surgically to restore and recover its original physiognomy and details and, on a second level, to adapt it to current needs in a game of back-and-forth through time.
To preserve the essence of the “maset”, the stone elements of the stairs, the iron railings, the wooden windows and the composition of the façades have been recovered on the outside. Inside, the doors, wooden shutters and floors were restored. In the case of the main hall, due to the poor condition of the original floor slab and the need to replace it, they were removed piece by piece, restored and replaced in their original position. Around the fireplace in the main hall, there are some curious paintings, which, although they are not original, have been preserved to preserve the memory of the building.
In a second layer of intervention, a series of small, very specific actions were carried out to adapt the building to today’s requirements and restore some elements that had disappeared. Thin, light, aerial steel handrails twisting at the ends run along the access steps. A new grille appears at the main door to protect the building from intrusion, and new triangular gargoyles emerge above the crowning cornice of the façades to prevent infiltration into the roof. A veil of lime mortar recovers the texture and subtleties of the façade. Inside, all it takes is a coat of paint and new installations to ensure the comfort of users. These new actions, designed to be recognisable and differentiate them from the pre-existing ones, are simultaneously intended to be integrated into the whole to maintain the unity and coherence of the building.
A subtle, light and silent intervention that, through a game of back and forth through time, recovers part of the history and modernist memory of Reus, transforming a small “maset”, a summer holiday home for the bourgeoisie at the beginning of the 20th century, into a public building for the city.
