La Darrera Casa by Arnau estudi d’arquitectura

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Architect: Arnau estudi d’arquitectura
Client: Particular
Location: C. Major, Riudaura
Reference: O-2020-03
Project: Renovation of front building as a single-family home
Photographs: Marc Torra

After the collapse of the old priest’s house, in the sixties it was decided to build a new house based on the remaining walls. The need to use that new structure as a feed storage left the inside of the house unbuilt. Our project of rebuilding and completing an unused structure as a new house starts out on this premise.

The responsibility of rendering the very last building of a row of houses in the old town leads us to reinterpreting the complex and peculiar original space. In this sense, the project proposes to reorganize its composition separating it into two simple volumes: the main one, with a two-sloped roof, which rises leaving the old stone base visible and forms a semi-exterior ground floor; and  the secondary volume, which slides virtually to the ground to receive us and accompany us to the upper house.

The main requirement of this commission was to build a house with which its owners could establish an emotional connection during their retirement. That is why the spaces in the last house are made up of reading corners next to the fireplace, a bench at the entrance, childhood landscapes or a courtyard for a beech tree. After all, upon closer look, time is made of seasons, of rooster’s songs and bell chimes.