Water as material narrative. House of the Waters by HUMA

Description of project by HUMA

It is about the restoration of Casa Dorda, an old 18th-century convent built for the Discalced Carmelite nuns, which was used as a mercy house and transformed in the 19th century by the architect Victor Veltrí.

The project focuses on the revaluation of the palace, justified by its value as a city and its condition of cultural interest. The restoration is motivated to accommodate the new headquarters of the city's water company, which, after the pandemic, is motivated to create a new management system based on care and service to citizens, where they feel safe and accompanied ; loved and respected, through the creation of haven places that appease; and promote a new communication in everyday life based on human relationships, from where they be able to speak and be heard.

The water justifies the meaning of the project. It is from the water, from where the palace takes its new life today, that the iron will reflect its recumbent spirit. Thus, the new materials used seek to represent water as a link.


House of the Waters by HUMA. Photograph by David Frutos.

The glass represents the transparency of water. Used as a resource to compartmentalize the different spaces of use through the creation of light wells, resulting in an open, fluid, and dynamic space in its transitions. These patios, executed with this luminous transparent skin, define a space where vegetation grows, relieving the sensation of closed interior space and promoting the well-being of work in an airy space surrounded by nature. Glass is used to create the furniture at work tables, at the customer service counter, and in the employees' office; it is executed using a triple layer of tempered glass, to which the intermediate window is broken in situ, in order to cause that wet effect of a drop of water sustained over time.

The terrazzo represents water's resilience in its adaptation to the form. Used as a floor and executed in situ using a mass of white cement and sand. Mixed with selected aggregate and died in its soul with a bluish pigment as a subtle nod to water.

Aluminum represents the reflection of water. The mirror that shows everything, arranged on the ceiling, walls, and existing pillars. Creating an infinite space from where the light in its reflection makes the space a continuous kaleidoscope.


House of the Waters by HUMA. Photograph by David Frutos.

The stretched canvas represents the immateriality of water. Creating a continuous mirror without joints, which returns to its face everything that comes close to it. The void that reflects everything is where space is amplified.

And finally, the presence of water, with the intention of making it a material that also builds, under the motto of building with water, this is how the water builds the facades, through continuous cascades that bathe the glass in its windows to the street. Under the impossibility of placing advertising posters on the outside as it is a protected building, it is the water in its movement that announces to the outside to the citizens the use that it houses inside. The water builds the baths in its streams and cascades; it is also present in the corridors of the cloister. It builds on the sound of its fall as a presence. That water, which justifies this new life and feeds our emotions, turned into the maximum exponent of life.