3-storey terraced house
El Vendrell
The core challenge of this project lay in creating a dwelling which, based on urban planning requirements, was obliged to begin at the first-floor level. It demanded a distribution across multiple levels, each with a small built surface area, while still needing to be understood and experienced as a house, not as a flat or apartment.
The regulatory restrictions also impose maximum floor dimensions of 66m² (5.50 x 12m) and require the construction to follow a terraced or attached typology with the existing neighbouring dwelling. Given that our site is a corner plot (or corner lot), this typology results in a gable-end or end-of-terrace house.
In the area where this dwelling is located, the ground floor is only permitted for a garage and auxiliary uses of the home, meaning it is not allowed to place the dining room, living room, kitchen, or any bedrooms there. Consequently, even though the plot has ample exterior space, we could not directly access it on foot from any of the main living spaces.
These constraints suggested the outcome would be a narrow, elongated, and tall building, lacking significant architectural identity.
The study focused on maximising the use of both the floor plan and the exterior spaces, which led us to position the staircase centrally, against the party wall, and to design it as a single-run flight.
Taking advantage of the fact that the site is on a corner plot, we decided to separate vehicle and pedestrian access, with each entrance located on a different street. Consequently, we placed the garage to the North (the most unfavorable solar orientation) by shifting the garage door to the very end. This left us enough free space to locate a car externally but still within the plot boundary. In this way, we clearly assigned one function—parking—to the least-favoured end, leaving the entire rest of the plot, which enjoys better sunlight (or solar exposure), free and usable.
Pedestrian access occurs almost through the centre of the plot in the longitudinal direction, via a wide pathway leading to the building entrance, leaving space on both sides for landscaping that can accommodate differentiated uses.
Location: El Vendrell
Client: Private
Built Area: 199 m²