Casa en Bugarra
A home that adapts to contemporary rhythms while preserving its architectural memory.
A home that adapts to contemporary rhythms while preserving its architectural memory.
In the centre of Bugarra, where houses still retain the cadence of another era, this project appears.
Casa en Bugarra addresses a recurring question in Mediterranean domestic architecture: how to update a traditional house while respecting its original spatial order. Shaped by successive extensions carried out without an overarching strategy, the building had developed a fragmented structure and an unclear hierarchy. The refurbishment begins with a precise operation: organising what already exists, enhancing its constructive qualities, and re-establishing spatial clarity.
The original structure had grown organically, almost intuitively, accumulating additions without a defined plan.
This spontaneous expansion, characteristic of vernacular architecture, resulted in compartmentalised rooms and a layout that was difficult to interpret. The intervention begins with understanding rather than erasure. Elements with the strongest spatial and constructive presence — generous ceiling heights, vaulted and timber ceilings, and the attic level — are retained as anchor points from which the project is reorganised.
The intervention extends beyond the envelope.
Original elements — internal doors, furniture fragments, and structural components — are carefully recovered and integrated into the new configuration. Rather than being displayed as nostalgic artefacts, they are reinterpreted in line with their intended use, updating their function without losing their identity.
The most decisive gesture occurs at the rear of the plot, where a patio with a swimming pool becomes the new domestic centre.
The living areas — sitting room, dining area and kitchen — open directly onto this outdoor setting, establishing a fluid relationship between the interior and the patio. In contrast, the bedrooms occupy the access frontage, reinstating the logic of traditional village houses, where private rooms shielded the façade and communal life unfolded further within.
The dining area, conceived as a double-height volume, redefines the domestic scale.
By removing the intermediate slab and emphasising verticality, the room acquires an almost theatrical presence. Light filtered from above accentuates the material textures and reinforces the renewed spatial order.
The upper floor is likewise dedicated to rest, while incorporating a generous study area that can occasionally host gatherings. This programmatic flexibility reflects a home conceived to respond to contemporary ways of living without severing ties with its past.
In terms of materiality, the project offers a contemporary reading of the traditional.
Microcement provides continuity and restraint; ceramic introduces texture and rootedness; timber, in a dark tone that deliberately avoids classic walnut, adds depth; and metalwork with a forge finish recalls the local constructive language.
