Welcome to our gallery featuring the extraordinary B House, a home designed by Artigas Arquitectes.
This sharply angled project has a dual personality, offering privacy on the front side and an open design on the rear.
With a thoughtful open plan design, the home makes exceptional use of its modest square footage.
Located in Barcelona, Spain, the home features a roughly 1770 square foot interior. This space is amplified and blurred by the presence of full height glass and large openings that connect it to the patio and backyard.
With a steel structure as its skeleton, this home is wrapped in concrete, with exposed brickwork and cavity walls spanning the visible surfaces.
The home itself is complemented by carefully designed exterior spaces, providing significance to the attached interior rooms and some of the most sunny spaces in south-facing parts. The facade enclosures contribute to a powerful energy savings, thanks to a ventilated design.
The home is defined in a rectangular prism shape, slightly elevated above the land. This shape is split into a pair of parallel prisms, producing two exterior spaces with distinct functions.
The street side half comprises a large two-story aluminum and glass volume, housing the main hall. This emphasizes the malleability of the visual presence, thanks to the transparent glass and the water plate.
The second volume comprises the southern side, with a much more open design that connects directly to the large wooden porch via the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Here is where you’ll also see an entrance to the garden.
The design here is cohesive and invigorating, and the results are truly fascinating.
Project architects: Albert Artigas, Ester Fortuny, Albert Ortiz
Interior designer: Estrella Salietti
Photograph: LluÃs Sans
Building contractor: A. Sined SL
Viewed head on from the backyard, we see the sharp edged structure wrapping warm brickwork around large expanses of glass. Each part of this side of the home centers on full height glass, either windows or sliding doors.
A slim pool emerges from the lush stone patio surrounding the home, heading directly away from the structure. The large wooden porch can be seen just to the right.
Here’s a closer look at the patio tiles wrapping the home, with the elevated porch tucked beneath an upper balcony at left. This area can be accessed from two sides and three different rooms within the home.
Moving around the exterior, we see the streetside view of the home. This is a much more private, closed-off appearance, with fewer windows and a thick fence wrapping the property.
Moving further around the exterior, we see the driveway entry, where the gate swings open to reveal a sunken drive and underground garage access to the left. The front door appears in rich natural wood, topped with a glass awning.
Here we move closer to the home, seeing the unique water feature below the main entry. Glass and steel stairs rise over the placid water, providing a special experience when entering the home.
Now we finally move inside the home, starting centrally at the staircase, a warm burst of natural wood amidst cool steel and glass tones. The open design makes for unique display shelving opportunities, like the bookshelf along the steps at right.
The dining room is part of the large open space in the middle of the home, centering on a sleek black modern table with contrasting white dining chairs. One of several large windows is seen here, partially shaded.
Here’s the living room, with diffused light pouring in through the massive floor to ceiling shaded windows. A sprawling red area rug brings a wealth of color to the space, as does the lightly purple tinted ceiling.
The kitchen, by contrast, features a more sedate color palette, with muted greys, whites, and stainless steel defining the space. The massive kitchen island features a built-in range and sink, with an extension that becomes an in-kitchen dining table in white.
The glossy black flooring contrasts nicely with the minimalist, matte cabinetry with steel hardware. The clean, clinical look of the kitchen makes it stand out even within this home.
At the top of the stairs, we can appreciate the way the thin metal railings complement the open design, making for a clear visibility from one floor to the next. A unique chandelier hangs above this two story void.
Upstairs, we come to the more private areas of the home, with an open hall connecting the large closet and display area with the primary bedroom. This space is lined with cabinetry and a lit display shelf for artwork.
The primary bedroom hosts a warm mixture of colors and texture, with rich hardwood flooring, sleek dark closet doors, and a bold piece of artwork on the accent wall above the bed.
The primary bathroom is awash in varied materials, with glass panels separating the water closet and walk-in showers from the main area, and a lengthy floating white vanity over grey storage cabinetry.
This secondary bedroom doubles as a home office, with a sleek white desk blending into the clean, bright look of the room. A unique minimalist bed frame makes the bed itself float over the hardwood flooring.
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(c) 2015
