Villa Serrano / CRUX arquitectos

Villa Serrano / CRUX arquitectos

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Courtesy of Ana Asensio. The Villa Serrano project, by CRUX architects (Raquel Sola and Alejandro Gª Pedrón), is the result of the rehabilitation of domestic space for its adaptation as rural accommodation. […] A bird’s eye view shows the house’s original rectangular plan, surrounded by a 3-meter patio equally distant from each outer façade. Secondary constructions (warehouse and patio) were later added on its south side. The rectangle of the house is longitudinally divided into three sections: two lateral sections, also 3 meters long, that house the served spaces, and a narrower central one as a corridor crossing from the entrance road to the back garden. […]

The spatial revision strategy can be summarized in a series of minimal but effective gestures: the elimination of the kitchen corridor by removing the partition that enclosed it, the regularization of the openings in the rear facade to mirror those of the main facade, and the complete remodeling of the bathrooms and laundry room. On a constructive and material level, the walls’ construction material -completely plastered before- is exposed, the tiles and original elements are retrieved, and the presence of the wiring and plumbing is organized through an upper containing strip, which is flat and white, and from which they are brought down exposed. This white strip is also used as a formal device to highlight entrances and openings, in a kind of zigzagging continuity that runs through all the perimetral walls. […] The metal carpentry, set up as the garden railing and as a shade at the entrance, stands out as the newest addition to the house, almost tinted with an artistic nuance. […]

This house was rehabilitated and completed in the middle of the COVID pandemic in 2020. In a time of confinement and loneliness, reopening this house after years closed and for sale has been like a reunion. People of the village indeed know the house, its history, and its spaces. During the work, the neighbors came to visit the process and upon its completion, they expressed how the former place could still be read in it. A small tribute was paid to them on the day of the photoshoot, using the house as a kind of “showroom” of their cheeses, bread, meats, and wines. The producers came to show their product and pose with it. Is this a space for tourism? Maybe. Or perhaps it is simply a village house that supports other base activities, without which no place can survive. Without the primary sector, life is nowhere possible. “When we visited it for the first time, we realized that the enjoyment of the habitat had changed fairly little in a hundred years,” Raquel and Álex said. “We want it to be good for the village, and also to have a place where family and friends can be welcomed,” they went on. That is the story that Villa Serrano intends to write, in a new stage of its history that commenced with COVID: having a place to share time because that’s what leisure should be about; but quality time (and space). Slowly.