Casa Hasna

Apartment Renovation in La Ribera, Barcelona

• Categories Residential
• Status Completed
• Year 2016-2017
• Location Barcelona
• Area 105m2
• Collaborators Construcciones Hermanos Puñal S.C.P.
  Paola Acevedo | Photography
  

Located in Barcelona’s historic La Ribera district, this project involves the complete renovation of a 105 m² apartment within a century-old residential building. Having remained largely untouched since its construction, the dwelling retained many of its original architectural features, including decorative hydraulic tile floors, ornamental plaster mouldings and timber joinery, all preserved in remarkably good condition.

The intervention sought to adapt the apartment to the needs of a family of four while respecting the character that originally attracted its new owners. Rather than redefining the apartment, the project builds upon its existing qualities, preserving its historic fabric while carefully adapting it to contemporary living.

The intervention is concentrated in the areas of the apartment with the least architectural significance, where the former kitchen and bathroom were reorganised to create a semi-open kitchen connected to the living and dining spaces. This strategy enhances the continuity between the apartment’s principal spaces while making full use of the natural light provided by the two internal courtyards. The new layout also accommodates three bedrooms and two bathrooms without compromising the historic identity of the apartment.

Preserving the original hydraulic tile floors became the guiding principle of the renovation. Existing partition walls were carefully aligned with the edges of the decorative tile compositions so that the historic “carpets” remain complete and legible. Where walls had to be removed, the recovered tiles were reused in the newly created spaces, allowing the original patterns to extend into the new bathrooms. Continuous microcement flooring connects these preserved surfaces, framing each tiled composition and reinforcing their role as defining elements of the interior.

The original timber doors and joinery were restored and repositioned where possible, while the decorative ceiling mouldings were preserved throughout. A restrained palette of white walls, continuous microcement flooring and custom-made joinery allows the historic materials to remain the visual focus, creating a calm and luminous interior where contemporary interventions coexist naturally with the apartment’s original fabric.