TR HOUSE

Innovation and functionality are the binomial that characterize one of the newest works of PMMT, a Catalan architecture firm, that just concluded the TR House in Barcelona. Built on a site that presents an accentuated topography and where it already existed an historical house surrounded by a spacious garden area, the new house had to obey to the dimensions defined by the urban planning regulations, while at the same time it should be able to integrate itself with the landscape and functionally adapt to the client's needs.

TR House Barcelona is a single-family house with a compact morphology. Its shape is the answer to the limitations presented by the preexisting conditions, combined with an innovative solution and with solid functionality criteria. In light of the urban planning constrains of this site and once it is situated on a depressed area, we had to solve an accentuated slope between the main entrance and the access to the house, creating two levels of access; one inferior and one intermediate. Trough slopes and ramps that establish different relations between the landscape, the house and its interiors, we've tried to minimize the big impact of the gap between the main entrance and the lower part of the site.

The result is a 13,00 m x 13,50 m three-storey cube-shaped volume, placed on a lower level than the street, that tries to establish a visual relationship with the creek that delimits the site, at the same time as it integrates itself visually with the landscape and with the surrounding higher buildings. The house is structured around a central patio, that articulates all the rooms with the perimeter corridor that surrounds it at the same time as it connects the different floors with a stair also located around the same patio. The lower floor is occupied with the "day areas", such as the living and dinning room and the service areas. As for the "night areas" - bedrooms and correspondent bathrooms - are situated on the middle floor. The top and third floor is occupied by an office area, a guest room and an outside terrace covered by a pergola.

The image of the building aims to respond to the defined functional needs. On one side, an outer envelop made of vitrified ceramic tiles, assembled on a stainless steel wired net, giving response to the need to merge with the green surroundings. Within a range of greens, we've worked with four different tones to obtain de same shades that one observes on the surrounding landscape during the four seasons of the year, creating the required merging feeling. On the other side, the facades where all the rooms are open to, respond to visual and privacy settings, that connect or hide the inhabitants with the surroundings. On the exterior side that is open to the landscape, a large wooden platform has de function to lengthen the living/dinning room area, extending it to the outside, creating a nice outer living space, under the shade of trees. This platform also gives access to the back part of the house, establishing an interesting circuit flow.

Due to its morphology and topography, the trapezium shaped site exposes a heavy slope on the tip that is closer to the creek. In this area, further away from the street, a playing area is generated. The pronounced slope is solved with a wooden platform sequence that establishes a dialogue between the house and the garden, once the platforms are made with the same type of chestnut wood that one can find on the facade. The proportion and disposition of the wooden pieces are the same, both on the facade and on the exterior platforms.

PMMT Architects