The project involves the renovation of a traditional terraced house in the centre of Poboleda, in the Priorat region, with the aim of transforming its upper floor into a guest house independent from the three floors below.
Access through the large central staircase and the existing lightwell is reconfigured to bring more natural light into the building and reinforce its vertical continuity. New doors, joinery and flooring are carefully introduced into a structure shaped by successive transformations. The intervention embraces this cumulative character, adding another layer to the building and allowing its façade to reveal the changing nature of an architecture constructed over time.
On the upper floor, the partial opening of the roof transforms part of the interior into a terrace overlooking the landscape and becomes the main gesture around which the project is organised. Existing elements, including the vaults, capitals, walls and openings, are preserved as traces of what was already there. Their presence defines the perimeter and establishes a material continuity between the different temporal layers of the house.
The plan is organised through a geometry of flooring that responds both to the existing structural elements, including columns, retaining walls and façade, and to the directions and alignments of the plots that shape Poboleda’s historic centre. The intersection of parallel and perpendicular lines generates a series of trapezoidal concrete pieces that define two areas of timber flooring inside and two ceramic surfaces outside. At the centre, the fireplace moves beyond a purely functional or decorative role to become an element around which different ways of inhabiting the house are organised.
The geometry of the floor thus extends the relationship between the interior spaces and the terrace, while shifts in material accompany the gradual transition from the interior towards the landscape. Benches, furniture and shelving complete the space with a limited number of elements, allowing everyday uses to occupy and transform it over time.
Ultimately, the intervention seeks to work with what the house already contains. Textures, finishes, irregularities and materials accumulated over the years coexist with the new additions without losing their autonomy. Rather than unifying the different layers of the house, the project brings them into dialogue, allowing them to breathe together within a shared space.
Photography: Simone Marcolin