Light as a material. El Priorato by Atienza Maure Arquitectos

Project description by Atienza Maure Arquitectos

Destroyed in a fire that only spared its stone walls, a large house in the Castilian region has been refurbished through the insertion of a structure that replicates and completes the original.

Between new arches of white concrete, skylights seek to bring brightness deep into the lower spaces of the building through a second stairwell, which skilled workers of the comarca placed right beside the old one.

1. Context
The project consists of the rehabilitation of a Castilian mansion from the s. XVI had burned in a fire in 2011. Only the stone walls, the staircase with a vault and the voussoirs of the collapsed arches remained. The building had formerly been used as the residence of the prior of the Monastery of Oña.


El Priorato by Atienza Maure Arquitectos. Photograph by Simone Bossi.

2. Light as material
The north façade is buried by the unevenness of Calle Mayor, and the ground floor was uninhabitable, without natural light or direct contact with the orchard on the south face.

The first intention of the project was to introduce this natural light that was lacking without disturbing the historic stone facades too much. It seemed to us that the best way to do this was through five skylights that cross the intermediate floors to the common areas on the ground floor. These skylights open onto two large atriums from where parallel stairs run; the original stone and a new steel and concrete one of the same width. This allows configuring a sequence of spaces on different levels, illuminated from above and framed by stone and concrete arches.


El Priorato by Atienza Maure Arquitectos. Photograph by Simone Bossi.

3. Dualities
The next intention was to form a project based on structural, material and spatial systems similar to the ruin that we had found, to generate that continuity with the pre-existing but clearly marking the subsequent interventions. The new elements that do not contain analogies with the originals are treated as light pieces of steel and wood, with systems that combine traction and compression as structural balance games. The constructive solutions have been raised following the maxim of Adolf Loos of the architect as a mason who knows Latin, in a constant dialogue with the workers of the region.

4. The phenomenological house
It is a house that multiplies the routes, enhances cross-views and exploration, and fosters a playful and hedonistic experience of space. Space with multiple qualities allows it to be constantly reappropriated without being tied to a specific and closed function.