Case Study House, Catalonia-Style
Casa Collumpio in Barcelona
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This single-family dwelling by the Mach architecture studio stands in the hills of Barcelona. Its open steel structure comes as a surprise; in fact, it is reminiscent of California’s Case Study Houses from the postwar era.
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The difference between this house and its neighbouring structures could hardly be greater: the small residential district in the northern part of the city is located in a valley incision between three large urban parks – Creueta del Coll, Carmel and Antoni Gaudí’s Park Güell – and is characterized by correspondingly steep slopes and curvy roads. Houses, at first many do-it-yourself constructions, did not appear here until the 1960s. Most of those have since made way to multi-storey apartment blocks.
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However, the parcel of land at the beginning of the Carrer de Pere Llobet was still vacant, though a building pit had been excavated. The architects decided in favour of a two-part construction: the lower level consists of exposed concrete with a vaulted ceiling and is half-buried in the terrain. The two upper levels are borne by a bright-yellow steel framework.
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Above the ground floor, plates of cross-laminated timber measuring 8 cm in thickness lie on the framework and act as a ceiling slab. For the flat roof, the architects went with a combined construction of corrugated metal sheeting and reinforced concrete.
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As sources of inspiration for their house, Mach cite California’s Case Study Houses, which were built form the 1940s to the 1960s, and Richard Rogers’ house 22 Parkside, which was erected in Wimbledon at the end of the 1960s. The steel framework was not merely an aesthetic decision, but was intended to accelerate the building process and make the result more affordable.
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All the same, it is clear that the architects built this new house for themselves to live and work in. Open floor plans surround compact sanitary cores, most of which do not extend to the ceiling. The reinforced concrete, corrugated sheeting and concrete-block infills of the eastern firewall remain exposed. Inside the house, the steel framework has been lacquered in white. In contrast, the stairway to the upper level has been coated with the same gleaming shade of yellow that makes the façades such an eye-catcher in rather heterogeneous surroundings.
Architecture: MACH
Client: private
Location: Carrer de Pere Llobet, 1, 08023 Barcelona (ES)
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