Heim Balp Architekten have completed Carrer de Nàpols residential development. Looking to seize and develop the full potential of the given urban space, Heim Balp’s design for Carrer de Nàpols build on the applied notion of urban infill.
Located in Barcelona’s dense Eixample quarter, erected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Carrer de Nàpols occupies a prominent corner site with a singular 45-degree oblique floor plan. Conceived as vertical extensions of the city in response to a limited ground area, reflect the studio’s creative and pragmatic understanding of local planning policies and constraints, all-the-more in a city advocating for reduced density.
Intent on retaining a contextual essence, the local culture guides the material and aesthetic choices of the Diputació and Nàpols projects, noticeable in particular on the façades. Circulating local restrictions for a classical, hierarchical floor division, the cladding of both multilayered façades – complementing windows with filtering panels – is folded in and out.
He reflects Barcelona’s playful architecture through its very own, singular architectural language. Fixed over a first partly concealed window front, the terracotta panels of the Carrer de Nápols play with the color of the city’s traditional plaster façades, replacing them with beautifully crafted ceramics tiles instead.
Continuously referencing the surrounding culture, Heim Balp expose a porous building, where visible French windows and hidden loggias coexist: a filter through which residents communicate with the rest of the city. The design is conceived as an inherently mixed-use space, allowing for a plurality of functions to cohabit.
Fostering the notion of community while responding to the limited size of the individual units, they turn shared spaces into a common resource, distributing communal spaces throughout the building. Based on mobility and connectivity, the resulting design act as intelligible contemporary urban living spaces. Source by Heim Balp Architekten.
- Location: Barcelona, Spain
- Architect: Heim Balp Architekten
- Project Team: Pietro Balp; Michael Heim, Ben Goldstein, Andreia Martins, Cecilia Samà, Lia Janela, Federica Carletto, in collaboration with Derryk Dettinger Arquitecte
- Area: 600 m2
- Completion Date: 2021
- Photographs: Filippo Poli , Courtesy of A R T Communication + Brand Consultancy
