©Marta Badiola

Villa Piedad (mercy house)

Location: San Sebastian, Spain

Architect: Marta Badiola

Client: Marta Badiola

Material: Concrete

Completion date: 2010

Built area: 52m²

Photographer: Francisco Berreteaga

Story:

Text provided by the architects:

Inhabiting the volume. Converting the plane into livable volume. Embracing the space. These have been the obsessive aims of the project.

My chances of purchasing my own dwelling in the most expensive city in Spain came down to 40 square meters and my knowledge of architecture.

Villa Piedad (mercy house) was a two-family house built-in 1950. In the course of time, the house was divided up into 8 tiny flats. I bought one half of the under-roof space, the garret of the previous dwelling. A flat with low ceilings and divided into 5 tiny spaces with a claustrophobic central corridor.

Verdict: total demolition. Including the roof, that was in a dreadful state. Without mercy. The outcome was an almost square space with 3 façades and a roof: 4 planes in contact with the exterior. The gruyere cheese was completed with the 7 roof-windows. All the spaces are arranged around a central partition and the bathroom is hanging over the communal stairs. Just like Tati’s house, everything connects ;)

The main space enjoys the view above the city. Living and working in two different levels of the same space. Connected but separated at the same time. The studio on the mezzanine turns into a bedroom when friends are staying.

The kitchen opens to the east to enjoy the morning sun and enlarges laterally the living room. The bedroom is in the calmest area of the house, away from the railway.

The doors hide itself. Every empty space is a wardrobe. Every centimeter counts.

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