The rooftop of the building is made by rainwater collection surfaces that, through a system of gargoyles with the volumes, those conduct the water from one to the other until reaching a funnel that carries the water to an old cistern located in the underground floor. The project contemplates the use of this water for sanitary equipment.
Project description by Daw Office
A building between party walls consisting of a ground floor, four standard floors and an attic floor with community roof. The original building dates from 1790, with a unique facade to Bolquer Street. In 1850, with the forced expropriation law, the opening of Carrer Princesa began. This fact allowed the original property to be expanded, acquiring fragments of parcels segregated by the new street, and generating a new building with the main façade of to the new Carrer Princesa.
The project proposes the transformation of a property with 8 flats, distributed in 2 per floor, plus the main one, and an attic in a new distribution of 13 apartments. In order to improve the accessibility of the building, an elevator is incorporated into the eye of the staircase within a permeable enclosure with the intention of maintaining the feeling of an open space on the staircase. This vertical communication presents the main elements of heritage conservation that have been restored and that have caused the need to incorporate independent vestibules to fully respect the original appearance of the staircase.
The building had undergone many interventions throughout its history and many actions had been taken against the original structure of the property. The project tries to recover all the heritage aspects of the original building. One of the interventions to be highlighted is the recovery of the exterior carriage entrance connected to the main patio. This patio was condemned by the consolidation of the ground floor and the main floor; the project restores the original condition of the patio to the ground floor, thus improving the lighting and ventilation of the flats.
The rooftop of the building is made by rainwater collection surfaces that, through a system of gargoyles with the volumes, those conduct the water from one to the other until reaching a funnel that carries the water to an old cistern located in the underground floor. The project contemplates the use of this water for sanitary equipment.
On the ground floor, the visual permeability of the commercial premises between Calle Princesa and Calle Boquer is worked on through the recovery of light from the original patios. The intervention on the ground floor recovers the materials of the original work: masonry walls, stone arches and Montjuic stone pavement that was under the materials placed in the different interventions that the building suffered during its useful life. Likewise, partitions and interior divisions not typical of the original project and that do not constitute load-bearing walls were eliminated. The building manages to considerably increase the luminosity thanks to the recovery of the patios.
