Penthouses and façade refurbishment in Santa Coloma.

It was not the first time that we talked to these clients about doing this project when they came to contract us, so the team had already thought about it repeatedly: refurbishing the penthouses of the downtown building (built in 1967) and moving there to live with their families. We had also discussed raising the existing building by one or two floors more and thus adapting to the new urban settings in the area and… one day they decided to do it.

So we started this work (which was built in record time): the architectural design of the penthouses, the inclusion in the existing façade, the renovation of the buildings’ facilities, the refurbishment of the private garage (located on the -1st floor), the new roof, the structure necessary to support it all, etc. And all this with the building inhabited and the business premises on the ground floor in use.

With all these features, we started to design the project: building two penthouses on about 500m2 of floor area. It was decided to raise a floor and a half more and thus keep the rest of the rental apartments up to the fourth floor. In the penthouses, on the ground floor with double height, the day living area was distributed and the bed rooms were located on the top floor. The two apartments were joined above by the access to lift, so we arranged a shared gym for two families with a walkway of wood and enclosures in opaque glass.

We wanted to provide the apartments with the maximum light and transparency possible with respect to the outside –taking into account that we have located the living room South facing and with the best views from the building. In this way, the apartment is organised around this dual space of the living room, functioning as a large glass window completely open to the valley and bringing natural light to the all the interior spaces. We compartmentalised the maximum of enclosures with glass, thus achieving infinite perspectives and a greater sense of space.

Speaking of the façade, the approach is to clearly differentiate the extension of the rest of the building; therefore, façades that are completely different to those existing are proposed so that the rustic stone cladding becomes a base for the extension itself.