Faced with the need to adapt to the climate crisis that the planet is suffering, the architectural studios Pineda Monedero + Jaime Prous Architects have created a specific solution for an old twenty-square-metre "badalot" in the Barceloneta neighbourhood, which protects the house from radiation with an intelligent mechanism that dialogues with tradition and turns the terraces into interesting shade houses.

As a response to the globalisation and gentrification that characterises city centres such as those in Barcelona, ​​this substandard dwelling with a terrace that is twice the surface area of ​​its interior is protected and insulated from the sun by this light and versatile skin created with ten Mediterranean-style wooden shutters that give it a new spatial conception.

Pineda Monedero + Jaime Prous Architects address the contemporary need for adaptation and transformation, inspired by tradition, which they innovatively materialize in a mechanized solution to protect and regulate solar radiation using a series of blinds that slide through curved guides that close the roof in a single shaded space.

The solution responds to the client's needs, a digital nomad who requires a versatile workspace to be used seasonally, especially during the summer, when it is essential to have an outdoor space that complements the limited interior space and where more activities can be carried out.

018 Capsule by Pineda Monedero + Jaime Prous Architects. Photograph by Borja Ballbé

018 Capsule by Pineda Monedero + Jaime Prous Architects. Photograph by Borja Ballbé.

Project description by Pineda Monedero + Jaime Prous Architects

Summer capsule for a digital nomad
In a rooftop on the Barceloneta neighborhood is located a 20 sqm substandard housing with a terrace twice the size of the interior. Its new owner reflects the changes of gentrification and globalisation of Barcelona: he is a digital nomad and will only use the house for seasonal stays, mainly in summer.

Adapting this former badalot into a home requires insulating and protecting from the sun radiation. We propose a made-to-measure, light and mechanised device that, like a machine, regulates the sun. Ten wooden blinds, the same as those that have been used for centuries, are placed on rollers on the roof. They slide along guides and close the house into a single shed, transforming the terraces into pergolas.

The references are obvious and draw from the nearby Umbracle designed in 1883 by Josep Fontseré in the Ciutadella park, but also from the technological fantasies proposed by Archigram in the 1960s. All of this to confront a very contemporary reality, which is the need to adapt to the climate crisis the planet is suffering.

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2024.

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Barcelona, Spain.

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Pineda Monedero is an architectural firm based in Barcelona founded by Àlex Pineda and Antón Monedero. It is a young studio with a long experience at an individual level, both nationally and internationally.

Context, containment and contrast are repeated in their creative process. They approach the design of commissions as objects defined in relation to their environment. Each project is based on constant exploration and the search for an optimized result.
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Jaime Prous. Architect since 2006 by the Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona. He began his career in the Barcelona office of Francisco and Damián Ribas. Until today he has carried out outstanding works from residential to sports equipment. He has always combined the practice of the project with research and teaching. He is currently a professor of Technology at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura Vallés. Passionate about traveling, he impregnates his works with foreign influences, embodying his own personality.
 
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