Good morning, Carme!
Reactivation of plaça del Carme, Olot, 2021

Between the street and the ground floor

Shopping is an integral part of the street. Improving the vitality, comfort and safety of the public space was done by fostering occupancy of closed shops and emphasising relationships through the shop windows. That was the task developed on the street in the project, Good morning, Carme! (Olot, 2021). In a single year, 1000 m² of shops were opened and 120 m of façade were redesigned in a single square in the old town.

Changes in the consumption model have caused the centres of many cities to head into a sharp commercial decline. Based on the premise that the activity and character of the street depends on the façades and what happens behind them, the urban renewal of these spaces inevitably involved the mobilisation of the bank of empty ground floor premises. The shop windows are where this relationship was established, with extensions into the outside with awnings and pedestal tables and into the inside with the products on display.

It was thus advisable to blur the borders between the public and the private, from a physical perspective and, especially, from a municipal management viewpoint. That was the starting point for the Good morning, Carme! project, which united and went hand in hand with a collective hope: the revival of plaça del Carme in the centre of Olot. Traditional city planning was reconsidered, allocating 70% of the budget to ground floors. The project also included the opening of the city’s Art School and the remodelling of a warehouse for a consumer cooperative. It is a project of projects, involving 3 developers and 8 shopkeepers.

The approach was similar to acupuncture, like a catalogue of actions that add complexity and depth to the relationships between the street and the ground floors. This catalogue considered planting deciduous trees to complement the façades, the lighting of the street from the perimeter and from the insides, converting empty openings into alcoves to exhibit sculptures from the Art School and overhauling shop windows to endow them with the most transparency possible and bring them into dialogue with the street.

During the nine months that works lasted, the “Carme office” was set up in the square, where we cooked up ideas on how to reactivate the space. This was the meeting point between neighbours, shopkeepers, owners and technicians, who also took on the roles of facilitators, managers and mediators. Dividing the project into stages ensured we could adapt it to any new needs detected.

Situation
Plaça del Carme. 17800 Olot
42.183204, 2.492156

Team
Clàudia Calvet, Xevi Rodeja

Artistic intervention at Simon Kuma lampposts
Quim Domene, with the special collaboration of Simon Group

Structural Design
Miquel Capdevila

Industrial Engineers
Protir Enginyers

Lighting Design
Grupo Noria

Gratitudes
Members of l’Artiga cooperative, Xevi Pujol (Landscaping advice), Garrotxa Museum, Olot town hall, Dinàmig and Sigma technical staff, Local occupation plan, Nucli Antic neighbourhood council, Neighbours and shopkeepers, Salvi Capellà, Joan Mallart

Promoter
Olot town hall, L’Artiga Coop, Art School of Olot

Builder
Construccions Pere Boada Comas, Grederes 2.0, Trasplantaments Sant Iscle, Civil engineering works & landscaping
Elèctric Jomi, Montolivet Instal•lacions, Grau Sistemes Tèrmics, Installations
Plantalech, Serralleria Jordi Cullet, Metal works
Fusteria Esfèric, Fusteria Esteve Baqué, Fusteria Jordi, Carpentry
Soy & Soy, Painting works
Rètols Mateu, RetMiq, Commercial signs
Magatzems Olot, Collell protecció solar, Textile materials
Viguet Canal, Fiosa, Reine, Codispe, FV Seguretat, Commercial fixtures

Images
José Hevia, Roger Serrat-Calvó (7/19)

Surface
1.750 m²

Project and construction dates
2020 – 2021 / 2021

Awards
2022. Awarded Iberoamerican Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism
2022. Awarded FAD Awards and Public vote FAD Awards
2022. Finalist Arquitecture Awards by CSCAE
2022. Selected European Prize for Urban Public Space
2022. Selected Girona Architecture Prize

With the support of Institut Ramon Llull

Can Sau. Emergency scenery
Establishment and adaptation of a common wall in the city centre. Olot, 2019
With Quim Domene, visual artist

Can Sau was a residential property located within the old city centre of Olot, where nowadays it is not unusual to see vacant sites. Given that half of the building was affected by a future street alignment, it was demolished leaving an urban void characterised by a party wall and four stepped buttresses facing the side façade of the Església del Tura (local Church) dedicated to the patron saint of Olot. Resulting in an urban environment characterised by abandoned lots, loss of definition, disfigurement and the destruction of the surrounding streetscape.

After being commissioned by the city council to come up with a new pavement treatment for the demolished site and taking advantage of an ongoing contract to provide waterproof metal cladding to the exposed buttresses, the project was reformulated. The allocation of resources to the vertical plane was considered a matter of urgency, and which apart from guaranteeing its waterproofing would lend the space a greater sense of urbanity. In a compact city like Olot the street façades shape the urban context and provide its character.

An emergency mise-en-scène employing hollow brick was constructed that completes what the raw structural buttresses suggested, revealing traces of domestic activity in the background with their imprint on the party wall. A series of three vaults and four niches is offered to the public space as a three dimensional façade, further defined by the paving treatment. It is an unfinished and versatile structure which can be adapted to situations. The visual artist Quim Domene carried out a number of interventions a posteriori within the niches, with elements allegorical to the history of the neighbourhood.

The Tura church, confined between narrow streets, now has a public space to its lateral façade, presided over by the closed-off door dating from the previous temple of the XV Century.

Situation
Can Sau. Valls Nous, 1. 17800 Olot
42.182175, 2.491457

Coauthors
Quim Domene

Team
Clàudia Calvet, Xevi Rodeja
Sara Palmada, Sergi Jiménez

Structural Design
Amaia López

Artistic intervention
Quim Domene

Promoter
Olot town hall

Constructor
Construo Construccions Generals, Tallers Casoal, Construccions Martí Canal, Cristalleries Olot

Images
José Hevia, Roger Serrat-Calvó (11/19), Esteve Moner, 1904 – Arxiu Comarcal de la Garrotxa. Col·lecció d’imatges de Josep Ma. Dou Camps (4/19)

Video
Un Parell d’Arquitectes, Martí Pellicer. Special collaboration with the actors of Projecte T

Surface
113 m²

Project and construction dates
2018 / 2018 – 2019

Awards
2021. Awarded Iberoamerican Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism
2020. Awarded Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona
2018. Awarded Living Places – Simon Architecture Prize
2021. Second prize El Temps de les Arts
2021. Bronze Award Fritz Höger Award for Brick Architecture
2021. Finalist AR Emerging Architecture Awards
2021. Finalist Architectural Heritage Intervention Prize
2021. Finalist Gubbio Prize
2021. Finalist International Urban Project Award
2021. Selected Catalonia Construction Awards
2021. Selected Rosa Barba Landscape Architecture International Prize

Fontada
Fountains of Sant Roc, Olot, 2020
With Clàudia Calvet, Xevi Rodeja

Three volcanic-stone terraces and rows of plane trees shape one of Olot’s best public spaces: the fountains of Sant Roc. It is a damp, shady and cool spot, accompanied by the river and murmuring of the water. It is a wonderful solution for the border between the urban fabric and the natural environment and, paradoxically, is an infrastructure designed for water catchment, bridges and railways.

These types of places change their character depending on whether you visit them alone or in a group. They are spaces open to nature, albeit maintaining a somewhat urban feel, appropriate for solitary and contemplative walks. In parallel, they can host large-scale celebrations around the fountain – fontadas – such as parties, picnics and concerts. This duality is illustrated by contemporary paintings by Santiago Rusiñol and Ramon Casas.

Invited for the Lluèrnia Fire and Light Festival, we selected this space to highlight its role among the community. One hundred and fifty light bulbs and their electric cables create a ballroom lamp, 8m high and with an 8m diameter, structured in three rings. It is suspended 3.5m above the ground, crowning a semicircular clearing defined by the main fountain and a row of slender trees. All components are reusable and the diffusers, thread-winding cones for textile machinery, are recycled.

The installation defines the twofold purpose of this site: it is adorned, celebrating its role as a community space for the city, while crafting an atmosphere conducive to introspective strolls. During the long winter nights and the pandemic of 2020, the light, like a magnet, emitted its siren song for citizens to rediscover this unique public place. And not only discover it. Under the shelter of the lamp, the fountains have once again become the stage for endless spontaneous activities.

Situation
Fonts de Sant Roc. 17800 Olot
42.173772, 2.473583

Coauthors
Clàudia Calvet, Xevi Rodeja

Structural Designer
Blázquez Guanter

Promoter
Lluèrnia Cultural Association

Constructor
Materials i Transports Coll, Narcís Salgueda Soy

Gratitudes
Aniol Coll, Salvi Capellà, Casa Sol

Opening act artists
Anaïs Masllorens (mezzosoprano), Marc Romero (pianist)

Images
José Hevia, Roger Serrat-Calvó (4/19, 12/19). Ramon Casas. Sardanes a les fonts de Sant Roc d’Olot, 1901-02 (2/19), Santiago Rusiñol. Font de Sant Roc, 1888 (3/19), Instagram (13/19)

Video
Mariona Comellas, Marc Planagumà

Project and construction dates
Ephemeral installation for Lluèrnia, 10/2020 – 02/2021

Itinerancy
Llum BCN, Barcelona, 11/2021
Jardins de Llum, Manresa, 02/2022
LumLab, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, 04/2022
Gau Zuria, Bilbao, 06/2022

Awards
2021. Awarded FAD Awards and Public vote FAD Awards
2022. Awarded Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona

Grotto
Transformation of a ruin into a romantic garden. The Valley of Bianya, 2021

The traditional country house splendidly combines the construction, clinging to the site, with the decoration. Its character responds to the coexistence of the rough skeleton with fragile and delicate finishes. This balance is also manifested outside: the era, the orchards and the cultivated fields, are complemented by pergolas, fountains and gardens.

The complex that forms the fountain and the pond of Mas Sobeies, located in the upper part of the estate, are a good example of this duality. It formed the backbone of the water supply system in the house and in the garden, at the same time that it formed, together with the chapel, the place for the celebrations. The pond also attests to the changes in the use of the house. First being transformed as a swimming pool when the country house is used as a second residence. Then, being colonized by plants when the house is abandoned.

On the occasion of the El Pícnic cultural activity, the Grotto intervention sets up a new stage in the evolution of the pond, leaving the previous stages to be read. The artifact is transformed into the pond of a romantic garden. A sculpture is added in the middle of the water, where the plants draw a kind of grotto, and the pool stairs located on the opposite diagonal are painted with gold. A light bulb gently illuminates the sculpture and the concavity that houses it.

Situation
Mas Sobeies. 17858 La Vall de Bianya
42.208127, 2.474605

Team
Clàudia Calvet

Promoter
Binari Cultural Association

Gratitudes
David Construccions i Restauracions, Narcís Salgueda

Gratitudes
Escola d’Art d’Olot

Images
Roger Serrat-Calvó, Carl Wilhelm Kolbe. Auch ich war in Arkadien, 1801 (4/6)

Project and construction dates
Ephemeral installation for the cultural activity El Pícnic, 26/06/2021

Agora
Services building in Morrot Sports City. Olot, 2017

A quadrangle, defined by two arcades that open onto football pitches. This is the centre of the Morrot Sports City in Olot. It is also our response to the contradictions between its use and its location: an industrial complex with an access street almost without pavements.

The square connects visually to natural geographical features, the contours of the distant mountains of Alta Garrotxa and Santa Magdalena. At the same time, this distances it from the factories and street busy with lorries. The whole is situated on a horizontal platform. An interruption in the basement leads onto an entrance corridor that is both complex and gradual: inner door, stairs and a ramp, porticoes at three heights, leading tangentially to the main space.

They are twin pavilions, but are not the same. They share profiles and porticoes, but keep their differences according to their positions and uses: one is for changing rooms and the other for reception, a café and services. The staggered volume heeds the proportions of the square, of the basement and the internal organisation.

Everything is structure. Working within a tight budget, investments were earmarked for the most essential items: the creation of a common area, the generous volume of the inside spaces and the entry of natural light. To this end, building load-bearing walls with concrete blocks was simple and easy to execute. The internal logic defined the calligraphy for the work and guided the sizes of the rooms.

The pair of facing pavilions define a setting for cultivating one of the most essential values planned for this sports complex: socialising.

Situation
Carrer de França, 30-32. 17800 Olot
42.191038, 2.482055

Team
Xevi Rodeja, Jordi Moret
Paula Alejandro, Mariona Planiol, Thommy Parra, Sara Palmada, Sergi Jiménez

Building Engineers
Jesús Bassols, Albert Casademont (Colomer-Rifà)

Structural Designer
Blázquez Guanter, CODIestudi

Facilities project
Serveis d’Enginyeria Sobirana Parés

Promoter
Olot town hall

Constructor
Argón Informática

Images
José Hevia

Video
Pep Sau, Job Ramos

Surface
865 m² pabellones + 1.220 m² exteriores

Project and construction dates
2016 / 2016 – 2017

Awards
2018. Awarded Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism
2018. Finalist Living Places – Simon Architecture Prize
2018. Finalist Ceramic Awards
2018. Mention Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona
2021. Selected BigMat International Architecture Award
2019. Selected São Paulo International Biennial of Architecture
2019. Selected Iberoamerican Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism
2018. Selected FAD Awards

With the support of Institut Ramon Llull, Acción Cultural Española

Dressing up the square
Domesticating the community room. Olot, 2015

The comfort and feeling of public spaces determine how we as citizens use them and make them ours. Showing off its new attire, Olot’s Sant Miquel Square takes on a domestic hue, leading people to view it as a community space for the neighbourhood. At a minimal cost, the foundations were laid to make it the centre of social life once again, an inclusive area where all the neighbours meet up to chat and socialise and can feel at home.

By applying layers of paint selectively, the work clearly comprehends and then enhances the spatial quality, geometry and construction systems of the square’s architecture. Crowning touches, patterns and carpets imbue the concrete-block walls with lightness, luminosity and colour, following their modulation and reinforcing the textile feeling of the medium.

The geometric patterns are evocative of domesticity, as well as the events that identify the neighbourhood, like the paper-costume parade, the musician’s troupe dance and outside concerts under the marquee. This action strengthens the uniqueness of every space but – most importantly – creates a backdrop that can easily host and be home to a wide range of activities and users, including games.

The project defines and develops one of the actions set out in the Comprehensive Plan for Urban Regeneration, the outcome of the participative process led by Paisaje Transversal. Just like salt enhances the taste of a stew, the perfect amount of paint strengthens the identity and integrating character of the square and – by extension – of the entire neighbourhood.

Situation
Plaça de Sant Miquel. 17800 Olot
42.187534, 2.495525

Team
Jordi Moret, Jordi Collell, Ramon Heras

Promoter
Olot town hall

Constructor
Soy & Soy

Images
Roger Serrat-Calvó, La Comarca d’Olot (1, 16/21), Emili Pujol – Arxiu Comarcal de la Garrotxa, Fons Emili Pujol Planagumà (7, 15/21)

Video
Un Parell d’Arquitectes, Imma Serra

Surface
4.235 m²

Project and construction dates
2015 / 2015

Awards
2016. Awarded AJAC Awards
2016. Finalist European Award of Urban Public Space
2016. Finalist Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona
2016. Finalist Living Places – Simon Architecture Prize
2016. Selected Rosa Barba Landscape Architecture International Prize

Full moon
Outdoor room for a house of the fifties. Olot, 2016

“Cheap Houses”
Sant Pere Màrtir is a public housing neighbourhood which was built in the 1950s in Olot (Girona). It is adapted to the natural topography of a volcano’s hillside. The economic scarcity during the post-war period sharpened the wits of planner Ignasi Bosch and Joaquim Maria Masramon, who built the houses using brick masonry, providing stability through form.

The Sun
The new outdoor room has a rectangular floor which is similar to the main room and is located next to the kitchen and the dining room. It encompasses an outdoor kitchenette and just like any other room, it has doors and windows. The main window opens onto a semi-circular courtyard which is dug into the mountain. It is an opening to the sky, the sun and the moon; it is a courtyard’s courtyard. This layout expands the space between the house and the mountain slope, increasing by threefold the number of hours of sunlight in the house’s main rooms.

The Moon
At night a main lamp light which responds to three situations: inside the semi-circular window, it tenses the limit between the two spaces and it also makes the semi-circular courtyard act as a large reflector light. At the halfway point, in the centre of the room, the light crowns the activity by creating an intimate atmosphere around the table. Finally, placed against the wall, the projecting semi-sphere offers a general lighting and highlights the texture of the plastered walls, typical of the houses in the neighbourhood.

Situation
17800 Olot

Team
Jordi Moret, Dídac Franco, Jordi Collell

Structural Designer
Miquel Capdevila

Building Engineer
Dani Sánchez

Constructor
Construccions Sala Les Preses, Tallers Casoal

Images
José Hevia (1,4,5/15), Roger Serrat-Calvó (3,6,7/15)

Video
Un Parell d’Arquitectes

Surface
97 m²

Project and construction dates
2013 – 2014 / 2014 – 2015

Awards
2016. Awarded Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona
2015. Special Mention Lamp Lighting Solutions Awards
2016. Finalist AR Emerging Architecture Awards
2016. Finalist Living Places – Simon Architecture Prize
2016. Third Prize Darc Awards
2017. Selected Enor Architecture Elevators Award
2016. Selected Rosa Barba Landscape Architecture International Prize

House between canopies
Detached Single-family home. Vilablareix, 2020

A two-storey house fit between two canopies. This is the answer to the common conflict between a desire – to enjoy the spatial attributes of a detached house – and planning – small plots with the minimal 3m separation to the property line. The possibility of installing lightweight features in the non-buildable area is the loophole in the ordinance that will be the engine driving this project.

The geometry of the floor plan frees up two outside rooms, each of about 40m², which incorporate the mandatory separation. A room midway between the street, the front door and the kitchen functions as a foyer, parking space or large room for casual celebrations. The other is an intermediate room and the perfect space for extending activities in the living room to a covered outside.

These spaces are shaped by a metal structure with retractable awnings, which improve how the building behaves to weather conditions. With this lightweight architecture, the house is compact, with load-bearing walls. A single perfectible window format is repeated, except for the sliding doors that maximise the openness of the ground floor.

The staircase, laid out diagonally in the middle, divides the home into two C-shaped palindromic bodies. Each part holds a canopy with a chamfered façade. Most of the windows open here, providing a diagonal view that adds visual depth and privacy from the neighbours. The geometry and layout of the openings allow for different types of light in a single room, as well as viewing the house itself through the windows.

Situation
17180 Vilablareix

Team
Xevi Rodeja, Clàudia Calvet
Thommy Parra, Sara Palmada, Sergi Jiménez

Structural Designer
Blázquez Guanter

Engineer
Jordi Comino

Building Engineer
Jesús Bassols (Gespromat)

Project Management
Cercle Gespromat

Constructor
David Construccions i Restauracions

Images
José Hevia

Surface
201 m² + 83 m² canopies

Project and construction dates
2017 / 2018 – 2020

Awards
2021. Selected FAD Awards

Two houses in one
Single-family home between dividing walls. Llagostera, 2018

The domestic program for this home between common walls is created in a single storey, measuring 12 x 15 m, located a half floor above the ground. The front terrace and garden stand between the home and the street.

This piece is suspended over a semi-basement level of the same size. The large rectangular room is extremely versatile, infrastructural and defined by reinforced-concrete walls. It opens up to the outside at both ends, linking to the street and the garden via sloped planes. The large glass doors provide natural light and convert it into a large porch in the summer.

Over this structure is the house, with precast concrete slabs, which act as large main beams that allow the enormous open span in the basement to be maintained. To economise on building costs, these panels are not covered inside the home, instead finished with a terrazzo-type polish. A system of wooden baseboards, corners and friezes were the solution designed for the joints, imbuing the entire floor with a cosier and more homely feel.

This floor could be read as four rows of dislocated yet equal bedrooms. The large empty central space, halfway between two bays, is the exception: it subverts the logic of the galleries between the main beams, emphasising the presence of the structural partitions. This inner room is connected to four smaller rooms that surround it. They provide natural light from different directions, host complementary activities and structure the remaining rooms.

Situation
17240 Llagostera

Team
Jordi Moret, Xevi Rodeja, Clàudia Calvet
Eva Casadevall, Dídac Franco, Ramon Heras, Paula Alejandro, Jordi Collell, Thommy Parra, Sara Palmada

Structural Designer
Miquel Capdevila

Building Engineer
Jesús Bassols

Constructor
Construccions Josep Sais, Prefabricats Planas, Fusteria J. Carlos

Images
José Hevia

Surface
180 + 180 m²

Project and construction dates
2013 – 2015 / 2016 – 2018

Awards
2019. Awarded Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona

Marunys shell house
Detached Single-family home. Sant Joan les Fonts, 2016

The building, which seems massive, sits atop a headland on the outskirts of town. One could say that the house completes the physiography of the area. The entrance, dominated by a small square and a stone bench, silhouettes the highest point, right when the two roads converge. Starting from a hypothetical rectangular house, with a pitched roof and a structure of parallel vaults, the volume is chamfered to follow the road and embrace the garden.

It faces the older Mas Marunys. The respective narrow façades look onto each other, flanking the road. The newer building also has bonds with the local building tradition, recalling the implementation strategy, the structural system and the volumetry of the country house.

The entire home is designed with overlaid structures, which take on inertia through their bent or curved shapes. The concavity of the roofs and walls goes hand in hand with inside activities, differentiating rooms and corners on a ground floor designed as a flowing space.

The ceiling and partition walls are responsible for covering a refined case inside, contrasting with the austerity of the concrete formwork with pine sheets. The pattern of the vault and the lathing on the walls is a subtle reference to textiles, patterns, in short, a domestic scene. They are welcoming, comforting and sensitive to variations in light and chromatic tones, reverberating depending on environmental conditions.

Situation
17857 Sant Joan les Fonts

Team
Jordi Moret, Xevi Rodeja, Aina Roca
Adrià Masó, Laura Plana, Francesc Baqué, Dídac Franco, Jordi Collell, Paula Alejandro, Thommy Parra, Sergi Jiménez

Structural Designer
Miquel Capdevila

Building Engineer
Jesús Bassols

Constructor
Cros Encofrats, Jaume Coma Nogué, Plantalech, Daniel Faja Grabolosa, Mobles Iglesias

Images
Pep Sau

Surface
312 m²

Project and construction dates
2010 – 2012 / 2012 – 2016

Awards
2018. Awarded Palmarés Architecture Aluminium Technal Award

Terraces
Renovation of a village house as an extension of next door. Sant Esteve d’en Bas, 2019

Two slabs tie together these two homes – Can Man and Can Central – in the town of Sant Esteve d’en Bas. The first is the holiday home of two families, who each have one floor. The second represented an opportunity to expand the domestic space, equipping it with rooms more connected to the outside.

The two bays of Can Central were the original house and a courtyard that had been progressively built up. The second one was emptied in order to reverse the deterioration of living conditions. The freed-up space between the houses is partially framed by three levels of terraces. On one end, they open up, staggered, towards the southwest and, on the other, they withdraw from the façade, creating a courtyard in the front.

The series of terraces-courtyard is the feature guaranteeing abundant natural light and cross ventilation in Can Central, while improving air flows and light in Can Man. Folding French windows convert them into either sunrooms or galleries, depending on the time of year. These versatile pieces are now the centre of gravity of each of the rooms. The top terrace is shared and has two independent entrances.

The inside of the renovated home is organised into three main areas. First, a main living space parallel to the terrace. It is accompanied by an altarpiece made up of a series of niches, a porous background for furniture and service spaces. Finally, behind it, there is a staircase running lengthwise and extending the home to the top floor.

Situation
17176 Sant Esteve d’en Bas

Team
Xevi Rodeja, Clàudia Calvet, Aina Roca
Paula Alejandro, Sergi Jiménez, Sara Palmada, Thommy Parra, Mariona Planiol

Structural Designer
Blázquez Guanter

Building Engineer
Jesús Bassols

Energy Study
Espai Zero

Constructor
Construccions i Restauracions Joan Pujol Serrat, Fusteria Barcons, Metàl•lics Ferrer de Joanetes, Projectes i millores tècniques, Soy&Soy

Images
José Hevia

Surface
203 m²

Project and construction dates
2015 – 2017 / 2017 – 2019

Awards
2020. Finalist Catalonia Construction Awards
2020. Selected Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona

Three windows and one staircase
Refurbishment of a real-estate bubble apartment. Olot, 2018

A west-facing front with three repeated openings and a low ledge. A staircase with a straight section that faces the middle window. These features take on value and add a lush feeling of comfort and design to this couple’s duplex. It was a highly fragmented home with rooms that were too narrow.

A platform was added running the length of the façade, raised two steps from the ground, bringing the windows and stairs into relationship. It forms a bench where you can sit in the light, widening the area between the façade and the staircase, creating an intimate little dining nook. The relocated kitchen leans against the stairs to one side. The other side opens onto the living room, a generous-sized 4 x 4m. It is enclosed by a series of partitions, including a stepped lintel, a baseboard and the platform itself. These features graduate the hierarchy with regard to the other living spaces and imbue the flat with visual depth. A slight adjustment to the rooms on the top floor allowed for a corridor-dressing room to be fitted in at the top of the stairs, bathed in natural light.

The platform is built from OSB board, because it is lightweight, economical and does not need to be finished. This same material extends to the rest of the floors in the main rooms. To finish and the strengthen boards’ edges, decorative trim was added in black melamine and brass.

Situation
17800 Olot

Team
Xevi Rodeja, Míriam Soler, Clàudia Calvet
Thommy Parra, Sara Palmada, Sergi Jiménez

Constructor
Construccions J. Pallàs, Fusteria Jordi

Images
José Hevia

Surface
85 m²

Project and construction dates
2018 / 2018

Awards
2019. Selected Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona

Crossing rooms
Refurbishment of an apartment from the seventies. Olot, 2014

Destructuring the hierarchy of the home

Six new openings cut through the load-bearing walls, modifying the layout of the home, guided by the building’s structural logic. Reorganising the rooms to favour the entry of natural light towards the innermost rooms and improving their spatial qualities. The new visual hubs created destructure the relationships between the rooms, making them more diaphanous and permeable, while also accentuating their continuity through the new diaphragms. This frames and dignifies each of the home’s daily scenes.

The rooms in which these activities take place are handled uniquely, introducing new features that improve and qualify their use. Thus, the dining area is defined by marble mosaic flooring and a backdrop of thin columns and curtains that filter the view from the entryway. The kitchen is rationalised and opens to the outside via a small balcony. The living room occupies the space with the glazed bay window, enjoying the fireplace as a visual centrepiece.

The remodelling wants to add, recognising the features that shaped the former layout, not denying or eliminating them, but instead appropriating them, reusing what’s there to integrate these features once again into the new and highlight their value. Thus, the obsolete doorways, now classified as furnishings, take on new life as shelving, bookshelves and cupboards for cleaning products. The doors become windows and shutters.

Situation
17800 Olot

Team
Adrià Masó, Jordi Collell

Constructor
Jaume Coma Nogué, Daniel Faja Grabolosa

Images
José Hevia

Surface
101 m²

Project and construction dates
2012 – 2013 / 2014

Awards
2015. Finalist Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona

Rooms, doors and windows
Refurbishment of an apartment from the thirties. Olot, 2012

Repairing a house so it’s move-in ready Four rooms of similar size, high ceilings, mosaic floors, sunny gallery, terrace and porch, courtyard with palm tree. A vacant little flat, with few changes from the day when rationalist architect Bartomeu Agustí designed it in 1936.

The architectural intervention was based on making small and very economical changes. The resources available were allocated to upgrades required to the installations but, especially, to introducing small improvements to the layout, while keeping the personality of the spaces intact. The usage possibilities of each room needed to be expanded, bearing in mind that the home is not a single snapshot of a family at a specific time. Instead, how the spaces are used will depend on each tenant’s needs.

A great device for ensuring the flexibility of the domestic area is an organisation based on a series of versatile rooms with no fixed purpose, all of a similar size. Here, the relationship between the rooms is just as important as the rooms themselves. To this end, the works widened and manipulated the passages and connections between the rooms.

Opening up a window with a low sill or changing the layout of a door intensified the link between the spaces, without disregarding the possibility of making them independent. Widening the path between two tiny areas reorganised the kitchen so that a table could fit in there. The toilet was fitted with a cupboard that houses the fixtures and a retractable partition screen.

The outside spaces can now definitely be classified as rooms in and of themselves. Adding a tubular structure from which to hang a canopy and curtains on the deck lets dwellers regulate privacy and sunlight. The floor in the sunroom was lowered until it was level and straight. The lower level to the garden was adapted as a stone bench.

The house is move-in ready!

Situation
17800 Olot

Team
Jordi Moret
Adrià Masó

Constructor
Jaume Coma Nogué, Fusteria Jordi, Daniel Faja i Grabolosa, Germans Badosa

Images
Espai Androna

Surface
90 m²

Project and construction dates
2009 – 2010 / 2010 – 2012

Awards
2013. Selected Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism
2013. Selected Architecture and Interior Design FAD Awards

Luminous radiator
AgriEnergia Commercial Office. Banyoles, 2016
With Jesús Bassols

The electrical company AgriEnergia becomes more approachable to citizens, expressing its proximity, by opening a customer service office in a corner shop on the high street in Banyoles. A lamp-screen and changing the location of the entrance structured our design.

A sinuous undulating luminous radiator was installed, running diagonally through the space, highlighting the corner space and dividing the office into two distinct areas: the front open to the public for customer service and the other with private offices and workstations. After glimpsing the premises hazily from the outside, visitors enter through a door facing the main street at the inside level. From here, the space successively opens up, providing an area for each of the counters that fold out from the plinth of the partition screen. In parallel, each convexity defines a room on the inner side.

Flat glass panes are laid out perpendicularly along the entire length of the screen, giving shape and flair to the light radiator. These panes serve to enclose and multiply the light, converting it into the main feature of the premises. Repetition and curvature imbue the space with a vibrancy that contributes to dematerialising the glass. Indeed, the screen is an enormous lamp that is the focal point and allure of the office, crowned by gilded motifs that attach it to the ceiling. The entire structure celebrates the milestone in the 1920s of the integration of electricity and architecture. At the same time, it also spotlights one of the forms taken on by the product sold from this office: light.

Situation
Avinguda dels Països Catalans, 140. 17820 Banyoles

Coauthors
Jesús Bassols

Team
Xevi Rodeja, Aina Roca
Thommy Parra

Building Engineer
Jesús Bassols

Engineer
Anna Maria Comas (Enteq)

Promoter
AgriEnergia

Constructor
Construccions Xavier Muriscot, Alumilux & Metall-lux, Insbosch

Images
José Hevia

Surface
207 m²

Project and construction dates
2016 / 2016

Awards
2017. Awarded Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona
2017. Selected Lamp Lighting Solutions Awards

Can Jeroni
Refurbishment and extension of a hostel. Beget, 2005.

The Can Jeroni restaurant resumes the activity of one of the old hostels in the town of Beget. It occupies a house in a corner between the main street and the Beget stream. In different phases, the business was extended to the house next to it, establishing a new access, and restoring the old dining area.

The first phase was to adapt an attached room to the existing structure of the premises. The new dining room is characterised by being carved into sheer rock, the rhythmic structure of the wooden ceiling beams and the play of light. The framing is some five metres high, except for the last span, which was folded to channel the sole entry point of natural light towards the back of the room. The work employed a double scale to magnify the volume while, making diners feel comfortable.

In a later stage, a new entrance was created as part of a larger project to adapt the two upper floors into a hotel and improve aspects such as the lack of a reception area, the location of the toilets and accessibility. This foyer is shaped by the meeting of the three corners established by the volumes of the toilet, the lift shaft and the staircase. The space is thus connected to the outside, the dining rooms and the future hotel. The surfaces are austere and quite harsh, trying to maintain a dialogue with their surroundings.

Finally, the restoration of the main room and the fireplace dining room of the historic establishment is tackled, with the addition of a wine cellar.

Situation
Carrer Bellaire, 17 i 19. 17867 Beget
42.3207040, 2.4808328

Team
Jordi Moret
Eva Casadevall, Adrià Masó

Structural Designer
Miquel Capdevila

Building Engineer
Ramon Soler

Promoter
Restaurant Can Jeroni

Constructor
Construccions Salt del Sallent, Construccions Beget, Instal·lacions Viñeta, Fusteria Jordi, Taller Joa, Rètols i pintura Planella

Images
Pep Callís (7-11/14), Espai Androna (1-6/14)

Surface
235 m²

Project and construction dates
Three phases: 2004 – 2007 / 2005 – 2011

Reconocimientos
2011. Selected Sensitive matter: Young Catalan architects
2010. Finalist Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona
2005. Awarded Architectural Awards of the Counties of Girona

Two corner bay windows
When the house illuminates the street. Olot, 2014
With Xavier Monteys

The city is made up of houses, but we could also say that it is made of windows, especially at night. Windows on corners are resoundingly unique, as they add to the shaping of exceptional public spaces and imbue urban streetscapes with a shining beauty. The piece made for the 2014 Lluèrnia Festival was based on these premises. This single piece with a Neoclassical inspiration was installed on one of the corners of plaça Clarà, in Olot, a rectangular square surrounded by arcades.

If there is one singular fact about corners, it would clearly be the architectural difficulty of their composition and construction solution. However, there is another and perhaps more interesting fact that affects city corners: corners form pairs. Corner is synonymous with pair, but not the two streets that intersect there, but the pair of buildings that give it meaning.

The city’s transformation has made this corner into an incomplete pair. The role of the constructed piece is to reconstruct the pair, at least at night. The false bay window built over the arches onto the square, on a plot once occupied by a petrol station, aims to echo and complement, without replicating, the bay window on the other side. It is built with four factory-finished rounded steel cages. Added to the work, they have the same size as the other and several decorative features help strengthen the relationship, as well as the light itself. For a few hours the corner was complete.

Situation
Plaça Clarà, 1. 17800 Olot
42.180471, 2.485896

Coauthors
Xavier Monteys

Team
Jordi Moret, Eva Casadevall, Jordi Collell

Structural Designer
Miquel Capdevila

Promoter
Lluèrnia Cultural Association

Constructor
Cros Encofrats, Armallats, Fusteria Jordi, Daniel Faja Grabolosa

Gratitudes
Fills de Velasco SA, Col·legi d’arquitectes de Catalunya – Delegació Garrotxa-Ripollès, 555 Project, Brigada municipal

Images
Roger Serrat-Calvó (2/9), Blai Tomàs

Video
Blai Tomàs

Project and construction dates
Ephemeral installation for Lluèrnia, 08/11/2014

Awards
2015. Selected FAD Awards

Golden cloud
Plaça Major. Olot, 2013

Settling in, joining in and topping a jazz concert in Olot’s town square. Creating an atmosphere for a chilly night with the nuances and reflections of a golden cloud. Suspending an illuminated radiator 35 metres long a little above people’s heads, built with alternating paper coffee cups and gilded paper cake trays. Circumscribing the middle of the square and the middle of the city, with the reverberation of the audience and reflective confetti as a carpet. Domesticating the public space with very few resources.

Taking advantage of the wiring in place in the main square to hang the installation, entailed developing an artefact with a maximum load of 50 kg without sacrificing our goal of having a good length. The soul of the lamp is a multiple-layered plumbing pipe characterised by its plasticity, as well as being lightweight and durable. The joining pieces constrict, so the suspension cables can be attached to them without damaging the tube, as it will be reused later.

The lighting comes from continuous LED strips donated for the show and enabling us to execute our project. The diffuser is formed by round paper cake trays with one golden and one white side, alternated with translucent paper cups. This one, softens the brightness of the LEDs and adds warmth via its colour tone. The different qualities of the two sides of the tray imbue the cloud with a feeling of vibration that, added to its sinuous lines, offers a changing appearance depending on the point of view.

This installation was created in the framework of the second edition of Lluèrnia, Fire and Light Festival, which is celebrated in Olot on a Saint Martin’s summer night.

Situation
Plaça Major. 17800 Olot
42.182580, 2.489732

Coauthors
Xevi Bayona, Miquel Capdevila

Team
Dídac Franco

Structural Designer
Miquel Capdevila

Promoter
Lluèrnia Associació Cultural

Constructor
Daniel Faja Grabolosa, Brigada municipal

Gratitudes
Ignia Light, Interior Design students of the Olot School of Art

Images
Xavier Béjar (8/12), Joan Ginabreda (2/12), José Hevia (9/12), Marta Mateu (3/12), Eloïna Millan (1, 4/12)

Project and construction dates
Ephemeral installation for Lluèrnia, 09/11/2013

Awards
2014. Finalist Architecture and Interior Design FAD Awards
2013. Silver Emporia National Ephemeral Architecture Awards
2015. Selected Lamp Lighting Solutions Awards
2014. Selected Rosa Barba Landscape Architecture International Prize

About us

Un Parell d’Arquitectes is an architecture studio run by Eduard Callís and Guillem Moliner from the town of Olot, in ground floor premises open to the street.

Relational thinking characterizes the team’s projects which become a fusion and intersection of diverse worlds and different scales. They encourage exchanges between the infrastructure and the décor, between the residential sphere and the public space, between the city and the garden. They build radiant settings capable of stimulating activity, of narrating a whole new story reflecting real life and crafting an atmosphere based on the characteristics of the space, symbols, materiality and light. They work with and enquire into architecture’s timeless values.

The studio’s work has been published internationally and exhibited at different biennials and art galleries. It has won FAD Award, Iberoamerican Biennial and Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism Awards, Living Places Simon Architecture Award or the Girona Architecture Award. The studio was also a finalist for the European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention, AR Emerging Architecture Awards and the European Prize for Urban Public Space, amongst others.

Eduard Callís obtained his PhD in Architecture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) with his dissertation “The Architecture of Dams in Spain”; he is a design professor at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), and previously at the University of Girona (UdG) and Vallès School of Architecture (ETSAV), and member of Habitar research group at the UPC. Guillem Moliner got his degree in architecture from the UPC; he is a visiting professor at Cardenal Herrera University and he also teaches at the University of Girona and the Art School of Olot.