Spanish studio Raúl Sánchez Architects has transformed two derelict apartments in downtown Barcelona into a spacious two-storey home, centred around a pair of double-height gold cubes.
Located on the ground and first floors of a nondescript eight-storey block in the city's Raval neighbourhood, the apartments measured 55 square metres each, but were severely run down.

The brief given to Raúl Sánchez' studio was to tie two disparate homes together, through the creation of a new bedroom and staircase.
The first step was to cut into the first floor, to create a thick mezzanine level. The floor stops just short of the facade wall, but a glazed floor plane bridges the gap, demarcating the old and new elements within the scheme.

The central gold cubes extend up through this floor, providing a strong sense of geometry and order in the irregular interior space. "The idea was to insert two two-metre square volumes, rotated 45-degrees over the dominant axis, with their vertices overlapping without touching the original walls," lead architect Sánchez told Dezeen.
"It creates a simple and resounding arrangement in which two ideal shapes, two perfect extruded squares, are imposed on the existing irregularity, helping to arrange the floor space."

The cubes, which are covered in a glossy paint mixed with gold powder, provide privacy in the otherwise open-plan apartment. The first houses the stairway, while the other provides a bedroom pod on the upper floor, ...