The district of Gracia, Barcelona is a very dense neighborhood with very narrow spaces and is the location of a newly transformed urban rental housing building. Due to the small surface area available, this work consists of doing 3 small simplex dwellings with a comfortable staircase and elevator, and 2 middle triplex dwellings as two detached houses with an entrance directly located through the secondary street.
The idea of the exterior layout is to maintain the classical composed facades of the old buildings of the district with vertical openings, but adding modern elements, and in this case as metal balconies. The ground floor is covered with painted steel to protect the building from vandalism and to differentiate the plinth from the rest of the volume.
The main idea for the interior is to have open, flexible, and neutral spaces with neutral colors and durable materials so that every renter can put whatever furniture they choose. Open-spaced kitchens and a way to provide natural light is what is proposed in this kind of housing.