This Sweetly Sophisticated Apartment in Valencia, Spain, Was Brought Back from the Brink of Ruin

“A constructing has at the very least two lives—the one imagined by its maker and the life it lives afterward—and they’re by no means the identical,” lauded architect Rem Koolhaas as soon as stated. The prophecy is fulfilled, luckily or sadly, in the mean time when a piece leaves the safety of its creator.

Within the city-center neighborhood of Pla del Remei, in Valencia, Spain, an house constructing from the early Twentieth-century had clearly seen higher days. It had been nearly fully uncared for when it was given yet another probability by a developer who got here to its rescue. Underneath the plan to avoid wasting the constructing, the developer would restore the widespread areas and the structural components whereas particular person house house owners would restore their models. That was the deal architect Rosana Fuster Torregrosa, of Arkitandem studio, accepted when she first noticed what would change into her residence. She fell in love along with her house, even with all of the work that must be finished. “The reality is that there was nothing usable,” says Rosana, “however I did wish to respect sure authentic options such because the carvings, moldings, shutters, and exterior carpentry.”

The house, which Rosana determined to call Vivienda O, is a sq. constructed round a central courtyard. “There are two principal sides to the house. One has the lounge, eating room, and kitchen, all overlooking the avenue the place the constructing is positioned. The opposite is the place the bedrooms are, and it opens onto the block’s massive internal courtyard, which permits mild into the house,” she explains. Despite its imposing dimension, at simply over 3,000 sq. toes, it’s nonetheless a restrained and sensible residence, with an orderly distribution of rooms—all of them now properly used. “We did not wish to have a lounge the place nobody can enter on the finish of the day,” Rosana says after which provides, “the one change we could make sooner or later is presumably dividing the present kids’s room into two smaller ones.”

Through the restoration of the house, some authentic Nolla mosaic tiles have been found beneath the picket flooring. (Nolla tiles, produced within the close by city of Meliana, have been massively in style within the nineteenth century.)  They have been so broken that any plan to salvage them was shortly dismissed and a choice was made to not disturb them additional. The essence of the tiles, nevertheless, is expressed within the coronary heart of the house, its kitchen. “They have been very deteriorated and we opted to cowl them up. We did wish to give a nod to them, nevertheless, via the brand new tiles.” With its impartial partitions and noble supplies, the house offers a backdrop for a rigorously curated collection of furnishings together with items by Alvar Aalto (such because the kitchen stools and the bookshelves), Jean Prouvé (the restricted version Vitra chairs), and Peter Zumthor (the toilet lamp). The numerous small particulars helped this Valencian residence remodel from an unsightly ducking into an imposing swan.

This story was first printed by AD Spain.