CASAPUERTO
The city of 100 palaces. This is the popular name of El Puerto de Santa Maria, which between the 17th and 19th centuries accumulated houses of magnificent workmanship and palatial bearing. Unfortunately, many languish these recent years in its historic centre.
The commission of an Austrian couple with two daughters, was to recover one of these jewels of which they fell in love on a trip to Cadiz.
As it is a large house, with two courtyards and three floors and in an irregular state of conservation, the project was approached as a restoration in parts rather than a total renovation.
By focusing more on the less qualified areas and keeping the others almost untouched, it has been possible to revitalize the whole without losing the original charm.
The trace of the centuries and the contemporary performance coexist in a collage of times and textures, through an exercise of architectural acupuncture.
The main element is a pool that helps to cope with the summers and also allows a year-round use. It is incorporated into the interior of the house from the courtyard as a contemporary therma, accessed from a room with a large semicircular bench tiled with yellow and blue glazed tile, as an apodyterium.
Adapting the house for the use of family and friends has required dividing the kitchen into two levels and arranging new bathrooms and bedrooms. This intervention has been done without modifying the original structure of the rooms, so the new pieces have been configured as boxes or large pieces of furniture that do not reach the ceiling.
The house has a wide program with many rooms where the transitions are important. These thresholds have been tiled in blue tile in a play of colour and reflections that connect the memory of the house with the sea and relacation.
The rehabilitation of the house is still in progress: the next phase will be to adapt the upper floor as an artist's residence.
