Mercè’s apartment

This project involves the renovation of a dwelling with a layout that needed rethinking and certain characteristics that made it special. It is an attic extension built in the late 1960s in Vilafranca del Penedès, the first architectural project by Roser Amadó. A duplex of 120 m² per floor, featuring a stepped and symmetrical volume. Amadó’s project continued the symmetry of the building below in terms of massing, but only partially in the interior layout.

The goal is to convert the upper floor into an independent apartment with minimal, low-cost intervention. Therefore, the renovation is necessarily partial.
When studying the original project, we saw the potential to bring into the interior the symmetry that is expressed on the outside. This led us to open up a central distribution space—like a large, multipurpose vestibule—from which all the rooms are accessed.

We were drawn to the idea of being “continuators” of someone else’s project. Stylistically, the existing structure holds value—a project made with care and skilled craftsmanship. Our intervention is subtle. We want to preserve the perspective and significance of the pre-existing elements, which make it unique and special.
The strategy involves repositioning existing elements—doors and baseboards—that define the character of the spaces, into a new internal order. These are made of fine, crafted wood—this is a kind of construction archaeology.

The new elements that are introduced (wider doors and some additional baseboards) are built with the same geometry but using more affordable woods, and finished in white paint—visibly marking the transformation process.