AA308 Coworking Office | Dehesas, León, Spain | 2021
[MCVR ARQUITECTOS]
The project intervenes on a pre-existing building executed in two phases in the middle of the 20th century. It is placed within a large plot, for residential purposes, adapted from a previous agricultural use located at the intersection of the both main avenues of Dehesas, a scattered town.
The proposal rehabilitates a prototypical residential property built in 1954 and executed halfway between vernacular tradition and local modernity.
The pre-existing house offers an internal and an external face. Inside, it’s all about getting as much space as possible. Some encounters are discovered in the operation that try to be repaired in a convenient way, while others are provoked that serve the new use. The interiors rotate around two boxes that articulate the space. The lower one, cold, made of concrete and aluminium, provides light diffusion and reflections. The upper one, warmer, made of pine wood, is suitable for habitat, recreational and meeting uses, which expand to the outside through the glass that looks towards the mountainous landscape of El Bierzo.
On its external face, the building tries to dematerialize its presence through the use of polycarbonate typical of local greenhouses. It is a skin that scales through the sharp, re-existing windows, and is interrupted by the great new ones. The transformation causes a loss of massiveness that is enhanced by the choice of a gray color that links the façade with the sky. The elevations vibrate horizontally, making the glaze resonate with the polycarbonate; as they melt into the sky as they ascend.
The entire discourse is consolidated in the air trapped between the glaze and the façade. That intermediate space allows the old volume to breathe, while taking on a certain intimacy with respect to the external context.
The project closes according to its representativeness, more specifically at night. The contained air is illuminated, generating a real halo, which is at the same time a sign of the office and a beacon in the cross that draws the crossroads. Text description by the architects | Visit www.theradicalproject.com to read more about the project.
Source: www.divisare.com + www.mcvrstudio.com
Photography by: Adrián Capelo Cruz