Ca la Carolina: Lacol and Altura Arquitectes Renew an 18th-Century House in Rural Catalonia
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The original house was organised around a simple logic common to rural dwellings in the region: living quarters occupied the upper street-level floor, while the semi-basement below served agricultural purposes, accommodating animals, storage spaces and a courtyard.
A previous intervention had already introduced an attic level beneath a renewed roof, adding valuable space without fundamentally altering the building's character.
Lacol and Altura's task was therefore less about reinvention than about establishing a meaningful dialogue between the house's successive layers of history.
That dialogue is evident from the outside, where the team has restored the building's historic pink façade, heightening its chromatic intensity and pairing it with vividly saturated yellow window frames, shutters and blinds.
This vibrant palette may initially appear surprising amid the muted tones of neighbouring buildings, yet it draws from a long-standing local tradition of colourful façades found throughout the region, allowing the house to stand out without feeling out of place.