Architecture studio Anna and Eugeni Bach has recently converted a 19th-Century chocolate factory in the Spanish town of La Bisbal into a family home and studio apartment. Each floor of the three-story structure featured a different construction technique, so Anna and Eugeni Bach sought to showcase these distinctive elements with their alterations.
On the ground floor, metal beams support a series of brick Catalan vaults. These vaults run above a large living, kitchen and dining space. This area opens onto a new patio area with a pool through a run of tall, thin doors.
Above, the metal structure supports a wooden framework ceiling. This upper level of more compartmentalized bedrooms is divided by white partition walls. Walls stop short of this roof structure to create clerestory-style areas of glazing.
Above in the independent studio apartment, large wooden logs support a thin brick slab finished with a ceramic tile roof. A large living, dining and kitchen space at this level mirrors the ground floor layout. In the northern corner sits a double bedroom.
Each level is connected by the existing staircase of the warehouse, with an additional staircase added at the opposite end of the building.
“The new staircase allows multiple and flexible uses of both common spaces and rooms,” said the studio. “In this way, the owner’s different members of the family can enjoy a part of the house with a good level of privacy and autonomy.”
On the northern edge of the patio, a lower block houses an additional kitchen space that opens onto an external dining area alongside the pool. Topped by a new steel-framed roof structure, a suspended concrete staircase leads up to a new roof terrace atop this single-story structure.
