House at the Pyrenees

The project seeks to recuperate the construction values of an old existing vernacular house which was made out of dry stone, a traditional technique of the area of great tectonic value. It elaborates on a series of interior horizontal partitions that are supported by two vertical containers that behave both as structural elements and as divisions of the continuous spaces. Those vertical elements generate vertical continuity within the overall house, and even allow to eventually transform it into two independent homes. On the basement of the house, and responding to a structural weakness of a section of the existing wall, a big opening is shaped within the dry stone wall. Such opening permits amazing views and interior natural lighting to a second living and dining room; the rest of spaces accommodated within the old enclosure have a remnant sense of the old construction, although they are distributed according to new ways of living, in a more contemporary reading of architecture.

All images © Cadaval & Solà-Morales