Three years ago, we embarked on a family project. We found a derelict (and affordable) country home located in a tiny, well-maintained castle hamlet 1 hour outside Barcelona, Spain. We began renovation with the help of a young architecture studio based in Antoni Gaudí’s birthplace, Reus.

Can houses be honest with both their surroundings and inhabitants? What does it take to create a timeless home? Can a home remodel celebrate the layers of past, present, and future? Do homes know how to grow old in good shape?

Without knowing it, we began an enriching conversation about the layers of a timeless building that projects into the future: the bottom floor’s bareness was respected; the first floor gathers all the house’s living services; whereas the second floor opens to the natural surroundings.

There’s a gradient between the 3 floors of the house, bottom to top: from more primitive to more sophisticated, from less intervention to more intervention, from colder materials to warmer elements, from more protection/seclusion to the display of the Mediterranean, unspoiled surroundings.

We want to share this video with you as the first step towards a series of 3 documentaries that will explain the house in depth from three different perspectives.

In this first documentary, we introduce the project to you; the second video will explain how we came with low-tech solutions that perform very well with climate, inhabitants, and the surroundings (from materials to openings, and of course, furniture).

The third video will celebrate our collaboration with David Tapias (lead architect, Aixopluc), Ricard Pau (assistant architect), Gerard Marmolejo (transforming furniture design), and more. Stay tuned.