LIVING IN A NATURAL PARK WITH INCREDIBLE VIEWS JUST A FEW KILOMETERS FROM THE CITY OF BARCELONA IS THE LIFESTYLE CHOICE MADE BY THIS FAMILY, WHO FOUND A DREAM PLOT IN VALLVIDRERA.

After several years of living in the city center, this family decided to look for a place to be in contact with nature, without wanting to give up their close network of friends and family. For this reason, they sought a plot in the Collserola mountain range, a natural park just a few minutes away by car and well-connected to the city center via public transport.

SITE PLACEMENT AND BIOCLIMATIC PROJECT STRATEGY

The plot is located at the top of a mountain and has a downward slope toward the north, facing away from the city of Barcelona and offering incredible views over the Vallès region.

Although accessing from the upper part is always preferable on sloping terrain as it facilitates daily logistics, in this case, the option of locating the house in the central or lower area of the plot was evaluated, as a neighbor has a high-rise construction to the south that blocks much of the sunlight.

However, prioritizing sunlight would mean giving up incredible views and a more integrated, simple placement on the terrain. Therefore, despite starting with a home where southern solar incidence would be partially blocked by the neighbor, we decided to position the house in the most coherent location and seek strategies to capture sunlight beyond the facade.

If direct sunlight cannot be achieved via the south facade, the most logical approach is to seek it through roof openings. For this reason, the project is based on double-height spaces and solar-collecting atriums that compensate for the reduced thermal gains through the facade and also serve to intensify cross-ventilation in the various rooms.

The decision to locate the house on the upper part of the plot also has the advantage of freeing up a central recreation and leisure area with excellent sun and views. Here, we placed the garden and pool, which connect directly to the living areas through a multipurpose space that functions as a home office, a place for family gatherings, or a guest room.

PROGRAM

Having a sloping plot with access from the top is always a guarantee of accessibility, as the main living spaces can be arranged on the same level as the street entrance.

Thus, the day area—featuring a spacious living room, dining room, and kitchen—is located at the access level, a few meters below street level to ensure privacy and improve the placement of the other levels on the slope.

From here, a single-flight staircase connects to the upper floor, where the more private family bedrooms are located, and to the lower floor, which houses the more public and multipurpose home office and recreation program.

The first floor features three bedrooms reached via a double-height hallway with an atrium that rises above the roof, designed to capture sunlight and heat.

The lower floor features a multipurpose room with a bathroom, used as a home office, living, and reading area, while also serving as a guest room. It is directly connected to the outdoor garden and pool.

This room is designed as a space that can be completely opened up like a porch to facilitate the indoor-outdoor relationship during celebrations with family or friends. Furthermore, having access from the garden via an external staircase attached to the north facade ensures the privacy of the rest of the house when receiving guests, as they can access the recreation area directly from the outside.

CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM AND ELEMENTS

The house is built using a load-bearing ceramic brick wall structure protected by an EIFS (External Insulation and Finishing System) using wood fiber and render.

The floor slabs are constructed using ceramic vaults, which are finished on their underside at the express request of the clients.

The insulation is made of wood fiber composed of waste from the timber industry, making it an “upcycled” material. This means that beyond being recycled, it has been transformed into a product with higher added value than the original. Starting from wood chip waste, we achieve an insulating board with high thermal and acoustic performance that is natural, breathable, and has a low ecological footprint.

The exterior areas are developed using natural filtering strategies, avoiding over-paving. This allows us to thermally buffer the exterior temperature through a completely permeable paving grid that absorbs rainwater. This strategy also prevents overloading public drainage systems.

A piece called a ‘filter’ is used in the exterior paving; as its name suggests, it helps filter the spaces that have a plant substrate on the plot, allowing them to regulate humidity and the ambient thermal sensation through water evaporation on warm days.

The openings in the house are designed to optimize solar gain and reduce energy loss. In this case, as southern solar radiation is limited, the closing slats do not serve as sun protection but rather to ensure privacy from the outside.

Since there are no southern openings, solar protection is unnecessary as direct incidence is minimal. For this reason, the goal is simply to reduce exposure to neighbors’ views from the outside. Consequently, non-adjustable vertical wooden slats were designed to slide over the openings or the opaque part of the facade, allowing control over the relationship with the exterior.

ENERGY SYSTEM

Due to limited direct southern sunlight in winter—when the sun hits at a lower angle and is partially blocked by the neighboring house—the energy demand study indicates that an active energy contribution is necessary.

Thus, beyond resolving a system for heating water for bathrooms and the kitchen, we must provide an extra energy contribution for heating. In this case, we decided to unify the source and the energy production system to solve both needs, opting for an aerothermal boiler powered by photovoltaic solar panels.

The aerothermal boiler generates hot water, which is distributed as heating through an underfloor system.

Furthermore, to optimize the performance of the installation, an inertia tank is used to take advantage of solar energy during the day to store hot water for use at night.

Undoubtedly, the bioclimatic performance is conditioned by the installation of the underfloor heating, which negates the thermal inertia—the temperature storage capacity—of the floor slabs by incorporating an insulation layer around the pipes that reduces their density. However, this loss is compensated by the accumulation in ceramic walls that maintain the temperature thanks to high external insulation, whether it be heat in winter or coolness in summer.

To improve bioclimatic performance in summer, various atriums are equipped with motorized mobile openings that can be controlled by users or automated to manage solar gain and ventilation in the lower rooms.

Thanks to this combination of passive strategies and active renewable contributions, we have achieved a home that enjoys excellent performance in terms of energy efficiency, well-being, and interior comfort with minimal energy consumption.

WATER MANAGEMENT

Regarding water resource management, a water reuse system is installed. it consists of a rainwater tank that collects water from the roof for use in the irrigation system and a greywater tank for water from showers and sinks, which is filtered for reuse in toilets.

BIOMATERIALS AND REDUCING THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

To minimize the embodied carbon derived from the home’s construction materials while ensuring a healthy indoor environment, we have opted for biomaterials.

Thus, most of the wall structure is built with ceramic blocks made of clay fired in a biomass kiln, with the exception of the retaining walls on the lower floor, which are made of reinforced concrete for structural reasons. The floor slabs are also made of fired clay ceramic pieces.

The insulation is made of wood fiber, a low-impact material that offers high thermo-acoustic performance at a competitive cost, and the window frames and enclosures are made of wood.

What the images don’t show.

For several years now, we have always used extras for the photo sessions of the houses we build. These are people who occupy the house during the hours the session lasts and live in it as if it were their own while we take the pictures, ensuring the family’s total privacy.

As each session is unique, we find ourselves in the situation of having to look for families to spend several hours with us occupying our houses.

Given that most of the families we work with are people with a high ecological awareness who come to the studio because they share our life values, we always look for extras aligned with the studio’s values and way of doing things.

Our values, always present.

In this case, we looked for a story of environmental commitment, with people who are actively fighting for the climate.

One of our benchmarks in this field is the organization Extinction Rebellion, a movement born in Great Britain in 2018 with an international presence that uses non-violent civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly in the face of the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

It is a movement that brings together more than 1,500 action groups in over 80 countries, including the scientific movement Scientist Rebellion, which includes some of the world’s most prominent scientists.

Rocío and Martí’s story

Rocío and Martí are members of Extinction Rebellion Barcelona.

Martí had always intended to be part of a social movement, motivated mainly by the gravity of the ecological problem and by having become aware that we are heading toward a scenario of global collapse.

However, although he had made forays into several collectives, it wasn’t until 2019, just before the pandemic, that he found an organization in which he felt comfortable enough to get actively involved.

As he tells us himself, the character of Extinction Rebellion “captivated him,” and it is there that he found people with his same ideals and concerns. Martí began collaborating with the communication commission due to his training as a graphic designer, but he has also participated sporadically in street activism through non-violent direct action.

Martí is also part of the Xarxa per la Justícia Climàtica (Network for Climate Justice) and the Assemblea per la Transició Ecosocial (Assembly for Ecosocial Transition), which are different platforms for debate and environmental activism at a local level.

For Martí, activism is not only a way to be in contact with people who share his concerns and to stop experiencing eco-anxiety alone, but it also means being a participant in a process that goes far beyond our capacity as humans.

For her part, Rocío decided to join Extinction Rebellion after the pandemic, a moment in her life when she had the opportunity to devote more time to reading about the climate crisis, which led to an intense concern and eco-anxiety. As she tells us, she felt alone, and this was the motivation she needed to seek out like-minded people with whom to share and join forces in the fight for the climate.

Rocío joined the strategy section, where she found a group of experts with extensive experience in social movements and climate advocacy, who supported her from the very beginning and with whom she quickly became actively involved.

For Rocío, activism is about making use of your privilege: we live in a part of the world where we are not killed for being activists, and most of us have free time because our basic needs are covered.

We must use this privilege to stand up for all those who do not enjoy this privileged situation and who, unfortunately, will be the first to be affected by climate change.