This inspiring duplex apartment located in Barcelona, Spain, was designed in 2017 by Raúl Sánchez Architects.

Description by Raúl Sánchez Architects
The starting point was two independent dwellings on top of each other on the ground floor and mezzanine of a modest, old apartment building between dividing walls in the heart of the Raval (Barcelona). Both dwellings were in an absolute state of neglect and disrepair.

The client’s requirement was to concentrate the main living spaces on the mezzanine floor and expand them on the ground floor with other spaces with more diffuse functions that could be used as living room, study, work area…
The proposal is clear and direct: in the middle of the space, insert two 2-meter side squares rotated 45º over the dominant axis, their vertices overlapping without touching the original walls, and extruded through both floors. A simple and resounding arrangement in which two ideal shapes, two perfect extruded squares, are imposed on the existing irregularity and arrange all the floor space without the need for any other means or elements. One of the squares will hold the stairs communicating both floors, and the other will house the bedroom on the upper floor and the toilet and office spaces on the ground floor. The very rotation of these squares results in the specialization of the space around it without needing any additional doors or enclosures (except those that provide the required privacy to bathroom...