Refurbishment project of a home in Sants (Barcelona) by RÄS Studio arquitectura
We show you an incredible home renovation project in the Sants neighbourhood of Barcelona
In this Monaparteando, we show you an incredible home renovation project in the Sants neighbourhood of Barcelona by RÄS Studio, a young architectural practice that has worked magic, transforming an uninhabitable space into a gorgeous flat.
Joan and Claudia met at university and, after crossing paths at various architectural practices, they decided to take the plunge — with a little trepidation — and set up their own studio, RÄS Studio. Later came Marc, the perfect vertex to complete the team.
We are young, good-looking, sensitive and cheap. That is how Räs Studio defines itself. And we agree with them.
The studio was founded with the aim of managing and controlling its own projects. In a sector hit hard by the crisis, setting up an architecture practice was a crazy idea, but a good one. Because time has proven them right. Nowadays, thanks to a job well done and word of mouth, they already have a consolidated network of recommending clients. Thanks to one of them, this renovation project in Sants came their way.
“The building was an absolute architectural nonsense because it was in a lamentable and uninhabitable state” Claudia speaking. The refurbishment project was quite a challenge. “Arriving at a property with all the homework left to do meant a major challenge… we wanted to show our client that anything can be turned into a habitable space with significant architectural value” emphasises.
The property consisted of two terraced dwellings facing two facades, and its completely fragmented layout made the flats gloomy and very substandard.
Starting from scratch, they identified and preserved the structural elements of value, such as the exposed brick wall. They compacted the wet areas in the centre of the flat and knocked down partition walls to open up the spaces and make them larger. They also freed up the two large sources of light coming from the two facades to fill the spaces with light. A great success because the home, which they have christened Olga, is overflowing with natural light.
They also restored the facades, floors and structure, and all this on a very, very tight budget. “Another of the biggest challenges of this project was managing to optimise a limited budget for actions that would allow us to achieve a quality product. And we have achieved this thanks to very thorough monitoring of all activities.” Joan comments.
One of Räs Studio's main strengths is the special attention and care given to the structural elements of the homes they work on. “It helps us to spot every opportunity within the spaces and to focus the investment of effort on much more concrete actions” Note down, Marc. Furthermore, they claim not to be tied to any specific style, as they prefer to adapt to the spaces. “We shy away from rigid ideas in order to make stylistic decisions in relation to the variables presented by each context”.
Approaching every project as a blank canvas with thousands of possibilities is the premise they followed when conceptualising this home. The result speaks for itself: A exquisitely designed home with a solid architectural base and an “ambidextrous” layout offering a host of different uses for the spaces.
In this Monaparteando, we show you an incredible home renovation project in Barcelona's Sants neighbourhood by RÄS Studio, a young architecture firm that has worked magic, transforming an uninhabitable space into a gorgeous flat.
