Wood Prefab Panels Cloaked in Galvanized Steel Form a Hillside Home in Barcelona

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Project Details:

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Architect: Jaime Prous Architects / @jprousarchitects

Architect: Pineda Monedero / @pinedamonedero

Footprint: 1,722 square feet

Builder: Guix Laminat Blanes

Photographer: Del Rio Bani / @delriobani

From the Architect: "Building on a complex and fragile site, a forested hillside, we asked, How do we settle into a sloping terrain without disrupting the landscape? Most neighboring houses seek to occupy the largest possible footprint, altering the surroundings to the maximum. We rejected the aesthetic of white walls that conceals concrete structures, major earthworks, and air-conditioning. The house is developed on a single story, set at the midpoint of the plot and supported by a lightweight steel structure. In plan, the house traces a broken line forming a 144-degree angle, orienting the cantilevered end toward views of mountains.

"This is a dry construction built with a sincere and environmentally responsible logic. It is a near net-zero energy house that combines unusual materials, such as steel sheet, with highly efficient ones, such as timber.

"The main structure consists of prefabricated timber-frame walls assembled on site with a lightweight timber beam floor system. One end of the house is embedded into the hillside, while the other cantilevers over it, supported by four galvanized steel columns braced with X-cross ties to minimize their section. A galvanized steel sheet envelope protects the timber beneath. The windows cut into the façade as large, frameless openings that, from the outside, dematerialize the house."