Architecture studio H3o Architects transformed an old barn of a traditional Catalan farmhouse in Sant Just Desvern, a town bordering Barcelona, into a home for a historian passionate about creativity and art.

To approach the project, the legend of a lightning bolt that crossed this house, known as Can Cardona, years ago is taken as a starting point. It is said that the lightning came through the chimney and circled the room for a few seconds.

As a result of this story, the architects of H3o Architects have designed a space with great dynamism and a radiant color that appropriates it, using the idea of lightning that is formalized in light and becomes the element that divides the rooms and ends up becoming walls.

The proposal integrates lines, geometries, materialities, and colors that generate an attractive visual effect far from conventional visions and spaces under a gabled roof. A proposal that responds and blends with the user's tastes in art and creativity.


Relámpago House by H3o Architects. Photograph by José Hevia.

Description of project by H3o Architects

H3o Architects, a young architecture studio based in Barcelona, presents Relámpago House, one of its most special and unusual residential projects. The renovation of a modest 55m2 old barn within a traditional Catalan farmhouse on the outskirts of Barcelona, situated in Sant Just Desvern, has given rise to a distinctive space full of color, which tells its own memorable story to those who visit it.

Driven by the desires of its owner, a historian with a passion for creativity and art, the project takes as starting point, the legend of the lightning that crossed Can Cardona many years ago. The architects wanted to depict this inspiration in a functional yet bold design that would stimulate the client's artistic interest.


Relámpago House by H3o Architects. Photograph by José Hevia.

Relámpago, the name of the house, is Spanish for lightning, alluding to the story about the natural phenomenon that holds historical significance for the property. The gable-roofed house features lightning as a central element, playing a key role in defining and delineating distinct areas within the house. When lightning is transformed into both a wall and a lamp, it promptly shapes and configures the functionality of the interior spaces.

“Relampago House is a project that speaks of one of our great concerns in spatial exploration: morphology and colour approached through fantasy. We used the incredible story of a lightning that struck the house years ago as a starting point for the design".

Adrià Orriols, Joan Gener and Miquel Ruiz of h3o Architects.

With this renovation, the studio's main intention is to generate a unique architectural experience that departs from conventional bland interiors. By combining an outbreaking architecture with a highly distinctive concept, brimming with identity, it results in a proposal that merges geometries, materials and colours, giving life and shape to a stimulating interior where fluidity between spaces stand as protagonist.


Relámpago House by H3o Architects.

A zigzagging distribution shapes the different areas of the house. With a distinctive morphology composed of lines and angular geometries that flow and blend with each other, the project creates a visual and spatial effect that amazes the user. Furthermore, the wide range of strategically applied vibrant colors on the different surfaces of the house allows both to highlight shapes and volumes, as well as distinguish and unify spaces. This chromatic choice creates an atmosphere that challenges the usual spatial perception of the user and, in combination with a series of small, seemingly out-of-context stone elements, opens the way to sensations and memories that transform the space.

Relámpago House transcends the conventional notion of home. By celebrating a passion for the arts through an authentic narrative, it aims to introduce a different vision of everyday life, where creativity and originality are the essence of each day.

More information

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Architects
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Collaborators
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Art direction.- Claudia Mauriño.
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Area
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55 m².
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Location
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Barcelona, Spain.
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Manufacturers
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Doors.- Eclisse.
Tiles.- Fabresa.
Bathroom devices.- Roca.
Lights.- Monsó i Benet.
Floor.- Ralpe.
Equipment and furniture.- Casa Protea, Domestico Shop, Curated By.
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Photography
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H3o Architects is a Barcelona-based architecture firm formed by Adrià Orriols, Joan Gener and Miquel Ruiz. Their practice promotes innovative and speculative designs in the fields of architecture and urbanism facing the challenges of contemporary society. Climate change, social responsibility and the hybridization of human and non-human realities are at the core of each project.

In the field of theory, the studio investigates the membrane as the epidermis of architecture and its social, political and ecological implications. Among its projects are the conversion of the Convent of the Poor Clares into the new library in Arenys de Mar, the 155-unit housing block at Kop-Dakpark (Rotterdam), winner of the Europan 15 Rotterdam Award, the renaturalization of the square in Castell d'Aro, and the new residence for the elderly in Es Migjorn Gran, Menorca, all of them ongoing projects. One of their latest projects has been the ephemeral installation “Nomad Assembly" in the Mercat dels Encants, as the central stage of Model.
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Published on: January 28, 2024
Cite: "The legend of lightning as a starting point. Relámpago House by H3o Architects" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/legend-lightning-a-starting-point-relampago-house-h3o-architects> ISSN 1139-6415
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