To the Spanish study bxd arquitectura is commissioned by a real estate company the realization of a house in the city of Sant Cugat de Valles, 5 km from Barcelona. They think of a design that allows the greatest possibilities of distribution and volume work through skins that make up one box inside another.
bxd arquitectura designed the house as a volume in which the main programs with the day area are on the ground floor and the night area on the first floor, leaving a basement under the volume. The house is related to the need of people to live in quieter areas and tries to take advantage of the space as much as possible, getting it through a diaphanous floor where several programs are unified in a continuous space. For the design of the house, it was also thought about its relationship with the exterior and the different projections of light and shadow.
 

Description of project by bxd arquitectura

The plot with 300 m², allowed the construction of 125 m² inscribed in a volume above ground of 14 meters long, 5.5 meters wide and 6 meters high once the distances to established boundaries.

We decided to place in this volume the main program of the house with the day area on the ground floor and the night area on the first floor. Under this volume is the basement with parking and pedestrian access to the house.

Taking into account that we did not know the final user of the house or their needs, we decided to place the staircase in the position that would allow the greatest possibilities of distribution. And we focus on solving a volume with a ladder, placed on a concrete base.

This approach suggested that the construction could be by means of two formulas, the basement must necessarily be "in site", but the main volume could be totally "off site".

In this way, for the envelope of the main volume, we decided to work with a double skin formed by a box, closed, inside another box, permeable, of larger dimensions than the first one.

The first box, a closed enclosure, built with prefabricated panels of wood against lamination, gives us the structural function, and at the same time enclosing with optimal energy qualities, thermal comfort, acoustic characteristic of the material. Also for its qualities we decided to leave the wood seen inside the house.

 

Description of project by Jean Craiu

The house is located in a residential neighborhood of Sant Cugat de Valles, a town that is located 5 km from Barcelona, ​​(from the district of Les Planes), between the Collserola mountain range and the De Galliners mountain range. The city of Sant Cugat has developed a lot in the last twenty years "taking advantage" of the real estate and tourist pressure of Barcelona and now it is already known as an innovative city at the business and educational level. Many people have preferred to live in quieter areas, "away" from the noise of the city looking for a cheaper way of life.

The MG House is related to this type of need but also to the way of thinking about the house for a "nonexistent" client taking into account that the order comes from a real estate company, where the construction prices are very limited.

At the design level, the project is defined as a construction system that allows the use of the space as much as possible. A concrete plinth, a wooden box and the structure of the metal pipes on the facade establishes the backbone of the house.

The large wooden panels structurally connected, visibly from the interior as a final finish, allows to have a diaphanous plant, where the kitchen, the dining room and the living area are unified composing a continuous space without another type of additional structural system.

On the first floor the double room follows the same principles, but the separation between the 2 rooms is done by a "buffer" space of bathrooms and dressing room.

For the relationship with the exterior the 2 floors are connected through the terraces and on the ground floor it extends towards the pool.

The integration of solar protection "filters" on the south façade "works" more as a "fabric" of light and shadow, which creates an indefinite space between the interior and the exterior. Depending on the projection of the sun and the use from the terrace the "membrane" of the facade "moves" from the glazed area towards the front of the tubes.

At an urban level, the house has its importance as a corner building that can generate a reference for the city.

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Architects
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Lead Arhitects.- bxd arquitectura. Francesc Buixeda, Ángel Gómez.
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Collaborators
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Quantity Surveyor.- LVCat. David García Peiron, Alba Cervellera. Engineering Structures.- Bis Structures. David García Carrera, Esther Muñoz, Ariadna Grau.
Engineering Facilities.- Albert Colomer.
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Building contractor
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Construcinc. Miguel Cervellera. VelimaSystem. Xavier Farran.
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Developer
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Tocs Urbans. Xabierbusquets Font.
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Area
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Plot.- 300 m². Building.- 125 m²
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Year of construction
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2017
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bxd Arquitectura is an architecture studio based in Barcelona, ​​founded in 2008 by architect and engineer Francesc Buixeda. Among its most relevant projects, they can highlight the Terra Hotel located in the Plaza España in Barcelona, ​​the MG industrialized house in Sant Cugat del Vallès, and the Housing Tower in the Plaza Europa del Hospitalet. The internal bxd architecture team is led by the architects Francesc Buixeda and María Barcina.

Francesc Buixeda is an architect from the School of Architecture of the International University of Catalonia and a Technical Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. After collaborating in his professional beginnings with Idom-ACXT and Juan Trias de Bes, he founded bxd architecture in 2008.

María Barcina is an architect from Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona, with over 20 years of experience in international and multi-sector architectural projects. Specializing in large-scale projects in the hotel and residential sector, since 2008 she has combined architect's work with the teaching task at the School of Architecture of the International University of Catalonia as a professor in the subject of architectural projects.

bxd arquitectura Barcelona has a solid team of architects with extensive experience in the development of projects and the optional management of the works. The most advanced tools are also used for the development of projects such as BIM (Building Information Modeling) in order to ensure the quality of the project from its conception to its execution.
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Published on: March 14, 2019
Cite: "The beauty of compactness. Casa MG by bxd arquitectura " METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/beauty-compactness-casa-mg-bxd-arquitectura> ISSN 1139-6415
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