CASA SANT LLORENÇ

Mostres d’Arquitectura Catalana de les Comarques Centrals COAC 2016 – Selected

The house is situated on a sloping terraced plot, former farmland and pasture, within walking distance of the medieval village Sant Llorenç de Morunys. Located in a valley at an altitude of 961 metres, the site has spectacular mountain views to the north, east and west.

Significant property setbacks on a small triangular site, compounded by a favourable solar orientation diametrically opposite the best views of the landscape were challenging but formally compelling as well. At its narrowest point, site setbacks left us with a mere 2.5 metre width.

With a brief requiring geothermal heating, high thermal performance and space for an organic vegetable garden and orchard, the option chosen was a three-storey, partially embedded mono pitched volume or night wing to the north, linked through a generous central entry and circulation space to an equally mono pitched two-storey day wing to the south, each 5.50 x 11.60 metres in plan.

A butterfly roof design replaces the traditional central roof ridge by a large single drainage valley. This was not merely a formal decision: sun exposure is thus lengthened on the southeast and southwest façades, rainwater reuse simplified and significant well-oriented façade surface for two loggia-type terraces generated.

Façades exposed to the harshest weather are made of structural brick clad in local stone, while the less vulnerable and sunny exposures are rendered in stucco. Timber “canvases” of local pine accompany porches and loggias and are used to frame windows and doors.

Sant Llorenç de Morunys, Lleida. 2012-2014

Photographer, Lourdes Jansana Ferrer