La Domestika

Located between Plaça de la Farga and Hortet de la Farga, La Domèstika arises from the intention to rehabilitate residential units from 1926, converting them into 6 subsidized housing units under a cooperative use-right regime, supported by La Dinamo Fundació. Originally, there were two plots with two buildings of 3 and 2 units of different heights that operated separately and are now outside current zoning regulations. Both buildings have floor slabs at different levels and depths but share the same construction system of masonry walls and steel beam slabs with ceramic hollow blocks. Now, tasked with rehabilitating the complex without altering its volume, we face two buildings that must function as one despite strong initial geometric constraints.

Lacol developed the building design, construction management, and site supervision roles. The latter team has overseen the construction process from the project’s conception with architects and developer. From the beginning, spatial, energetic, and constructive performances of the complex pre-existing building were quantified to optimize execution costs in collaboration with the rest of the technical team. As a small-scale cooperative, close support is provided to the developer in managing various economic and administrative scenarios related to the building construction, along with monthly reporting on the project status.

The project focuses on the communication core that maintains and connects the slabs of the two buildings, which differ in height by more than 1.2 meters, minimizing demolition. Positioned at the center of the property and flanked by patios on both sides, the core forms a vertical space reminiscent of the dimensions of Eixample residential buildings, allowing the integration of bioclimatic strategies to reduce consumption and enhance comfort through a glazed upper roof.

The resulting residential units range from 49 to 67 square meters with one and two bedrooms respectively, complemented by nearly 500 square meters of common interior communal spaces, terraces, and a courtyard. The outcome is a small development of only 6 homes, where community life is central and benefits from a variety of spaces reminiscent of a large house, featuring a spacious kitchen-dining room and multipurpose room on the ground floor, an interior block courtyard, and an accessible roof where daily tasks and leisure activities can coexist freely.

The plot’s orientation and surroundings present initially suboptimal energy conditions: significant obstruction from the southern sun reduces the necessary winter heat gain but provides good solar protection in summer. Therefore, the project strategy is to minimize heat loss and maximize interior thermal inertia. Anticipating longer, more extreme summers, the atrium is conceived as a major dissipative element that stimulates ventilation throughout the building’s corners, while in winter, with limited sun exposure, the greenhouse covering the atrium plays a crucial role by transforming circulation spaces into semi-outdoor areas for daily life, reducing the thermal demands of interior partitions.