Oliva-Remolà Studio
Terrassa, Spain
Oliva-Remolà

Squeezed between nondescript industrial buildings, this little jewel stands tall

© Duccio Malagamba

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By David Cohn

Two back-to-back lots facing two streets provided the site for this studio. Scarcely 13 feet wide and more than 72 feet deep, the lots were wedged between continuous buildings on either side and had a slope of 25 feet from end to end. The site’s situation—overlooking a precipitous ravine known as the Torrent del Vallparadís (Valley of Paradise Torrent), a former gully recently transformed into an attractive urban park that cuts a deep gash through the city—made up for these limitations, however. Remolà and Oliva also realized that by building slightly higher than the existing two-story urban fabric, which is largely protected from growth by local zoning, they could enjoy spectacular views of the verdant mountains that ring the city.

To address the problem of bringing light into the deep center of the building, the architects grouped stairs, an elevator, and bathrooms around a central light shaft that penetrates to the lowest floor. In section, they staggered the floors in a split-level fashion around the stairs, a highly efficient arrangement permitted by the slope. This arrangement of space creates a fluid sense of luminous openness on the upper floors, where the daily activity of the office takes place.

On the exterior, the difference in elevation and context of the two extremes of the site result in two facades with very distinct personalities. The upper, western facade overlooks one of Terrassa’s narrow streets. Here the architects were required by zoning laws to maintain the existing two-story street wall. On the lower, eastern end overlooking the Vallparadís Torrent, zoning permitted the building to reach five stories. Remolà and Oliva located the main entry on this lower facade. An entry-level gallery is succeeded by a second-floor conference room, a reception and secretarial floor, an office floor including Remolà’s glass-walled private office, and Oliva’s penthouse studio. The opposite, western facade has a small garage for motorcycles on the ground floor (situated half a level below the reception-area floor), a high-ceilinged atelier for computer drafting above, and a rooftop terrace for the penthouse.

The glazed, steel-framed facades are literal expressions of the structure, also exposed on the interior, which consists of a simple skeleton of steel columns and exposed, epoxy-finished concrete floors, connected by open-tread steel stairs. Wiring and plumbing are accessible behind removable panels in the built-in cabinetry of the office areas and the bathroom walls. All of these surfaces, including the walls of the elevator shaft, are finished in a lacquered wood veneer. For the exterior steel framing and balconies, Oliva and Remolà specified a custom color that they find softer in tone than absolute black. The exposed ends of the party walls are finished in precast-concrete elements, composed of infill masonry, a layer of insulation, and a finish of thin cementacious waterproofing panels.

See the December 2002 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
Oliva-Remolà Studio

Location:
Terrassa, Spain

Gross square footage:
3,444 sq ft

Total construction cost:
$215,000

Owner:
Amadeu Oliva Uriel.
Maria Rosa Remolà Ferrer

Architect:
Oliva-Remolà, Study of architecture.
Amadeu Oliva Uriel, Architect.
C/ Cementiri Vell, 56. 08221
Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain.
Phone: (011) 34 93 785 01 01
Fax number: (011) 34 93 785 71 71