This ’70s Barcelona Home Was Reimagined Like a Game of Tangram

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Project Details:

Location: L'Ametlla del Vallés, Spain

Architect: Twobo Arquitectura / @twobo_arquitectura

Builder: MA&partners

Photographer: José Hevia

From the Architect: "When we first entered this house designed by Lluís Vintró 50 years ago, we were speechless. We could smell the ’70s aroma in the materials, in the Miguel Milà lamps, and in the geometry of the slanted walls that surrounded us, making it difficult to know exactly where you were standing in relation to the entire place. The young couple that owned the place now trusted us and gave us freedom to reinterpret it as we pleased with one single and seemingly simple request: they wanted to inhabit the place with more freedom.

"We gazed at the original geometry and paused to study it before drawing a single line. We discovered a triangular mesh that acted as a guide to draw the walls. These walls and distribution was just one of many possible interpretations of the mesh, forming variations of hexagons and octagons. We took special notice at an elongated hexagon that was repeated in different spaces. This shape, being part of Lluís Vintró's original project, sat comfortably in the house. It could be moved, rotated and turned easily following the triangular mesh, until it found its right spot. We followed this thread and weaved subtle changes in the triangular mesh, rearranging it like a game of tangram. New relationships of closeness, openness, and privacy, but also of the material limits and the intangible volumes, began to be established between the hexagons and octagons.

"The resulting space ended up looking like a forest with clearings that invited us to pause, play, and rest. Living without doors, exploring the architecture. That’s how we imagine that this house could be lived."