The house, on a long plot between party walls on Comte Vilardaga street, had serious shortcomings in lighting, ventilation, damp, structural condition and accessibility. The brief was to turn it into a comfortable, healthy home on a tight budget.

The strategy was to invest in what cannot be seen — structure, insulation, ventilation and drainage — and to use simple materials for the finishes, recovering the original elements worth keeping.

The key decision was to open rooflights in the roof, bringing natural light inside and making the loft space habitable, which increases the usable area. In the middle of the plot an inner courtyard lights and ventilates every room; the ground floor is properly sealed and drained to put an end to damp.

Superfluous linings were removed to expose the vaulted floor slabs, the handmade concrete party walls and the ceramic tile floors. Alongside them sits a contemporary palette of exposed concrete, glass and exposed steel structure, leaving small cut-outs as windows onto the house’s past.

A mechanical ventilation system with filtration and heat recovery was installed, and the roof and façade insulation was improved to cut winter heat loss and summer heat gain. The structure was simplified and its defects corrected. Steps were grouped at specific points so that the main areas are on a single level.