Hasta La Ideas

Barcelona studio Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectura has completed a concrete house with a triangular profile in the rural outskirts of Girona, Spain (+ slideshow).

Casa Montfullà is located on a hillside overlooking the plains, but the house’s plot itself is approximately level, so Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectura added sloping walls to create a building that appears to grow out of the ground.

“We placed a silent, hermetic volume that emerges from the site and adopts the original profile of the hill, like a fortress that visually dominates the landscape,” explain the architects.

Laid out in three horizontal bands, the building contains both a two-storey house and a terrace behind its triangular concrete walls.

A two-storey entrance area at one end accommodates bedrooms, bathrooms and a parking garage, while the middle section is a double-height living and dining room with a glazed elevation offering a view towards the fields.

During warmer months residents can slide open the glass to make use of the split-level terrace and swimming pool at the far end of the structure.

Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectura is led by architect Jordi Hidalgo Tané and interior designer Daniela Hartmann. Other concrete buildings by the pair include a centre for rescued turtles, dolphins and birds and a house with four wings and an underground entrance.

Other recently completed Spanish residences include a social housing block on the Canary Islands and a stark concrete house with richly stained timber shutters. See more architecture in Spain.

Photography is by Jordi Hidalgo Tané.

Here’s a project description from Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectura:

Casa Montfullà

We find ourselves on a horizontal ground, a corner plot raised on two large slopes like a vantage point from which to enjoy superb views towards the agricultural plain that stretches at his feet until reaching Salt and the city of Girona.

It is thus an exceptional setting that claims for an intervention that recognizes the attributes of the site and put them in value.

We placed a silent, hermetic volume that emerges from the site and adopts the original profile of the hill, like a fortress that visually dominates the landscape.

The volume encloses itself from the outside and is protected from the mediocre constructions that surround it by using the broken geometry of two thick walls. These walls comprise a continuous space from the inside out that creates in form of a terrace, a world of its own, which turns our attention to the distance.

The section shows the continuity of its spaces from the outdoor space to the studio on the top floor across the living room and the courtyard that separates and unites at the same time. The use of concrete for the construction of the house gives the object weight, mass and texture which is needed to provide coherence to the idea.

Location: Montfullà. Girona
Year: 2007-2012
Surface: 340 sqm

Authors of the project: Hidalgo Hartmann. Jordi Hidalgo Tané, arquitecto, Daniela Hartmann, interiorista.
Technical Architect: Rafel Serra Torrent.

Collaborators: Ana Roque, arquitecto, Rafel Serra Torrent, arquitecto técnico, Julia Fernandez Roldán, arquitecto.
Promoters: Carme Ferrer i Xavier Puig.

Construction:
Estructures Olot S.L (company structures)
LI-BRA S.L (general construction company)
Fusteria Serra (wood carpentry)
Plantalech (aluminium carpentry)
Electrica Masaló (company facilities)

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Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectura appeared first on Dezeen.

The four concrete wings of this house in Girona, Spain, appear to hover in the air above an underground entrance (photographs by Filippo Poli).

Completed in 2010 by Barcelona studio Hidalgo Hartmann, the single-storey Casa Pocafarina has a cross-shaped plan that sits on four pillars and hovers a metre above the lawn.

The underground driveway tunnels down beneath the floor of an en suite master bedroom to arrive at a staircase that ascends into the heart of the house.

Two children’s bedrooms and bathrooms are situated in the wing opposite, while a living room and a dining room occupy the remaining two sides of the cross.

A square courtyard surrounded by glass is concealed at the centre of a building.

Photographer Filippo Poli also shot a concrete centre for rescued turtles, dolphins and birds by the same architects – see it here.

Here’s some more text from Hidalgo Hartmann Arquitectos:

Memory

The house is situated on a corner plot with some good views over the distant landscape.

In order to enjoy these views and avoid the neighboring buildings, the ideal configuration for the house was to create a compact form of cross which is placed at the center of gravity of the plot.

The four wings are oriented in a way that ensures the selected views from inside the house.

The whole volume is supported by four pillars and cantilevers out over the garden level at a hight of one meter.

The pillars itself are based on the lower ground floor of 8x8m that contains access to housing, the porch, garage and laundry.

On the top floor, the cross-shaped plan organizes the four wings around a central space, an exterior courtyard, that provides sunlight into the heart of the house.

The four wings contain the different functions of the house with the living room area and the kitchen-dining area connected with each other through the transparency of the courtyard.

Distributed on both sides of this main space there is the master bedroom with it’s own bathroom and the two children’s bedrooms also with a bathroom hidden by a concrete wall.

The use of concrete in its natural colour and made with wood slats all over the house reveals visibly the powerful construction that is needed to realise the idea in a coherent way.

Authors of the project: HIDALGO.HARTMANN, Jordi Hidalgo Tané, architect, Daniela Hartmann, interior designer.
Technical Architect: Rafel Serra Torrent, Technical Architect.

Collaborators: Torrent Rafel Serra, Technical Architect, Ana Roque, architect.
Promoters: Xevi Bartrina i Alba Sarola.

Construction: Estructures Olot S.L (concrete) LI-BRA S.L (general constructor) Fusteria Serra (Word furniture) Plantalech (Aluminium charpenter) Cuines Santi, Olot (Kitchen) Electrica Masaló (fluids instalation) Electricitat Quim (electrical instalation)

Barcelona architect Anna Noguera has converted a sixteenth-century house in Girona into two contemporary holiday apartments.

The conversion employs a palette of steel, concrete and oak.

The house retains its traditional “badiu” or covered balcony and a pool has been added in the walled garden.

Alemanys 5, which overlooks Plaça de Sant Domènec in the Catalan city’s medieval quarter, can be rented through Welcome Beyond.

Here’s some info from Welcome Beyond plus text from the architect:

Architect: Anna Noguera (www.annanoguera.com)

Location: Carrer Alemanys, 5 17004 Girona Spain

Description

Located in the core part of Girona’s medieval quarter, within the scope of the first wall and overlooking the Plaça de Sant Domènec, is the property Alemanys 5, whose original building dates from the Sixteenth Century.

Its recent restoration integrates old and new, where sober and clean lines look for the enjoyment of essential elements such as space, light, shadow, fire, stone, water or silence.

Apartments

“El Badiu” (The Veranda) is a 180 m2 duplex in the upper two floors equipped with a master suite and two children suites, kitchen-dining room, great living room with fireplace and a spectacular veranda terrace facing south with exclusive views over the old quarter. It sleeps up to 5 – 6 people.

“El Jardí” (The Garden) is a 100 m2 apartment equipped with two double bedrooms, a spacious bathroom, a large living room with kitchenette and a nice private garden with solarium and swimming pool. It sleeps 4 – 5 people. The house can also be rented as a whole unit, with 5 bedrooms sleeping 10 – 12 people.

Amenities

Car park, elevator, fireplace, staellite TV, DVD, stereo and Internet access. Daily cooking and cleaning service is available upon request.

Interior

Furniture: www.pabordia.com

Lightning: www.susaeta.net

Kitchen: www.albertaubach.com

Anna Noguera, architect of Alemanys 5:

”The reform has been approached as a search for the most intrinsic characteristics of the actual construction, while the building is freed of additions, surface elements and recent reforms, interpreting the old elements not so much through an historical optic as through their architectural qualities.

Click above for larger image

Alemanys 5 is situated in the oldest part of Girona’s Barri Vell (Old District) inside the area of the first ramparts. Its location on calle Alemanys is special as it stands in front of one of the old fates of the wall, the Rufina gate, which provides views from the house to the convent of Sant Domènec and from there to the house, with the vision of the Cathedral as a backdrop. Although it is difficult to determine the antiquity of the built bodies, the most important reform dates from the sixteenth century. It later underwent many other reforms and additions that disfigured the original volumetry.

Click above for larger image

The site consists of a built body and a lateral garden with the façade giving on to the street. Two centrelines structure the building, one giving on to the street and another one to the interior part of the plot, with crossed facades giving on to the courtyard and garden. A large covered porch, or “badiu”, crowns the street façade and is one of the most characteristic elements of the house. In the courtyard, an old cistern collects rainwater from the roof.

Click above for larger image

The new layout respects the logic of the structure to adapt it to the new functional requirements. On the ground floor, from the main door, the vestibule and small premises are accessed, on the first floor are a dwelling with an exit to courtyard and garden, and the second and third floors accommodate a duplex dwelling, with the night zone in the lower floor and the living room and kitchen in the upper floor to provide vistas and a roofed terrace.

The project is organised around the two centrelines that structure the floor plan. The staircase has been shifted to place it next to the lift, in the interstitial space between the two directional lines of the centrelines. This space is configured as the hinge that generates the entire layout.

The refurbishment has been undertaken with very few materials: iron, concrete and oak wood. The forgings are exposed. They are in concrete with wooden shuttering, or wooden beams and beam fillings for the roof. Lintels and crowning of the stone walls are executed in steel sheeting one centimetre thick.

The staircase and lift space is lined in Corten steel panels to differentiate it as a hinge space. The floors of the staircase and front centreline are covered in wooden floorboards and those of the back centreline in polished concrete. The stone walls are exposed both in the exterior and in the interior, with special attention paid to the texture, colour and execution of the joins. The facing stones of the demolished constructions are recovered for cladding the cistern courtyard. It was sought to preserve the natural colour and texture of the materials in order to better integrate them with the colour and texture of the stones.

The garden, framed by tall stone walls, is formalised into three consecutive planes that go from hardest to softest: concrete, turf and water. The paved zone contiguous to the house is in planed concrete and is covered by a set of cables on to which the wisteria can climb. The plane of turf, finished off with a steel profile, floats above the water of the pool. It is like a dark, long reservoir that overflows and disappears, reflecting the neighbouring wall.”

Prices

‘El Jardí‘ from € 120 per night for 2 people € 20 per extra person per night

‘El Badiu‘ from € 140 per night for 2 people € 20 per extra person per night

Whole house from € 260 per night for 4 people € 20 per extra person per night

Bookings through www.welcomebeyond.com

See also:

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