Casa Grases

Situated within the heart of Barcelona’s Sarriá neighborhood, Casa Grases is a respectful rehabilitation of a late 18th century residence with a contemporary language.

The intervention aims to restore a pre-existing single-family residence to a multi-family residential building with a distribution that responds to the new ways of living spaces. The project also includes the annexation of a new building volume and the construction of a new single-family detached house.

An almost reverential respect for the original architecture of the house is the driving concept of the architectural project. The extension is a neutral element that does not compete with the visual power of the house but, on the contrary, enhances it with a reinterpretation of the elements that configure it. Here, the solemnity of the architecture of the past coexists with the pure lines of modern architecture.

The clear intentionality behind the detailing of connections between the old and the new creates a visual and spatial equilibrium with the pre-existence that makes it perceived as a whole. The result is a union between the craftsmanship of the past and the comfort and technology that the XXI century offers.

The structural intervention has been of remarkable complexity. To the surgical rehabilitation of the existing structures, which ranged from repair to replacement, must be added the work of adapting the underground spaces for the parking floor and the execution of the new building.

The creation of the new building volume has made it possible to adapt the structure to the accessibility requirements, allowing the original architecture to perform new functions and bringing life back to a nearly abandoned building.

Precise and intentional interventions have been made in the architecture to reveal the history of the building while creating a renewed experience of the pre-existence, now adapted to the new functions of contemporary architecture and life.