Villain House in Barcelona by Architecture Office Claudia Raurell.

On the northern slope of Barcelona’s Montjuic, the Villain House by Architecture Office Clàudia Raurell is a striking example of thoughtful design. The project is situated on a trapezoidal plot bordered by two party walls, where a precarious self-built shack once stood. The location, marked by Julià Street at an elevation of 55 metres above sea level, provides a privileged relationship with the urban fabric, akin to an immobile cable car embedded in the mountain’s slope.

Raurell’s design philosophy for the Villain House is rooted in a bidirectional dialogue with the city. From the inside out, the boundaries of the exterior enclosures dissolve, integrating the cityscape as a permanent backdrop. Conversely, from the outside in, the house emerges as a new urban landmark. “The new volume becomes a beacon for the city,” says Raurell.

Bajet Girame Blur the Boundaries of Conventional Family Living in This Barcelona Penthouse.

While embracing the industrial nature of the building, Bajet Girame add a constellation of architectural elements to create an interior landscape that blurs the boundaries of conventional family living.

Volumetrically, the house replicates the original structure, except for a void on the ground floor created by doubling the facade on Julià Street. This allows for the introduction of a glass skin parallel to the preserved original wall, establishing a modern, functional, and eco-efficient patio space.

The ground floor hosts the main living areas, while the first floor accommodates a guest room and a small studio. The interior layout strategically places volumes to define and isolate spaces without doors, promoting deep, crossed views and dynamic circulation. The exterior materiality features straw-coloured tones reminiscent of the original masonry, while the interior, marked by the glass skin, embraces various shades of grey, achieving a raw, honest brutalism that celebrates the structure’s history and scars. “This project understands rehabilitation as a hybrid exercise between consolidation and reconstruction,” Raurell explains.

Life Imitates Art: Casa Vasto in Barcelona by Mesura.

They say work-life-balance is important, and you’d be hard pressed to disagree. In the case of Vasto Gallery in Barcelona’s Poblenou, Mesura took a reductive approach to spatial separation and programming in this gallery-slash-home.

The new patio serves as a climate regulator, facilitating cross-ventilation and providing shade through the preserved original wall. The rehabilitation process involved a hybrid approach of consolidation and reconstruction, acknowledging the limited architectural value of the self-built original structure. An initial archaeological phase aimed to recover and integrate layers of the site’s historical sediment, fostering a dialogue between the old and the new.

By embracing both the old and the new, Raurell’s Villain House offers a compelling vision of sustainable and contextually aware urban living.

Chiaroscuro Composition: Elogio del Grigio by Cardillo Architecture.

Surrealist René Magritte often took everyday, familiar objects and placed them in unexpected scenes, posing questions as to where the boundaries lie between what is real and what is representation. Similarly, Italian architect Antonino Cardillo...

[Images courtesy of Claudia Raurell. Photography by José Hevia and Clemente Vergara (note: Vergara’s images are only seen in the photo gallery).]