SHORT DESCRIPTION

Located on El Puerto de Santa María, a former sawmill was converted into a home. This background led us to a project that, focused on maintaining the spatial presence of the former factory, updating its materials, and creating a courtyard to meet the ventilation and lighting requirements associated with the change of use. The pre-existing program consisted of a service corridor, connecting the only street facade of 2 meters, connecting the street to the main warehouse, which included a mezzanine floor where the mechanical workshop for sawing wood was located. With such a narrow facade, the house opens onto the newly created courtyard attached to the wall of the warehouse. The courtyard as the center of the home and the preservation of pre-existing elements such as the structure and the mezzanine become the project guidelines. It was decided to convert the entrance hallway into a sort of entrance hall by installing a gate recovered from the project itself. The larger mezzanine area marks the location of the bedrooms, both overlook both the courtyard and the living space. Materially, in a clear nod to its previous use, the mezzanine floor is made of large wooden boards, as well as the roof with sandwich panels clad with the same boards, combined with a troweled concrete floor. From the pre-existing elements, the metal truss structure was restored, supported by a single pillar that articulates the new patio, as well as the party walls. The mezzanine railing remains, hidden in the partition walls and appearing in the openings of the upper bedroom. Finally, regarding the party walls, the existing walls are backed up to the height of the metal trusses, leaving the remaining wall simply covered with lime mortar. This, without resorting to the oft-repeated reworking of pre-existing elements, does reveal the previous imperfections.