A precious roof over their heads
Spanish home’s prized asset gets new life in a respectful renovation
Remaking a farm stable into a modern, seasonal living space goes beyond your everyday reno.
But a family in Guemes, on Spain’s north coast, decided to do just that. And on their “must” list was keeping the roof, since the owner’s dad had built it with his own hands. “It would have been much easier and cheaper to remove the roof and rebuild it, but its sentimental value was priceless,” said architect Jorge Alonso Albendea, with Zooco Estudio in Santander, Spain.
The main portion of Vivienda en Guemes — which means “living in Guemes” — is a 3,330square-foot space that includes the kitchen, dining room, fireplace, living room, office and bookshelves. Concealed behind the bookshelves is the master bedroom.
A stairway that was originally on the exterior of the home is now inside and leads to a second bedroom. Storage is built into the perimeter of the large room, freeing up indoor space and highlighting the roof.
As well, an L-shaped extension has been added with accommodations for guests, plus a sauna, meeting room and a porch area beside the swimming pool.
Building materials were kept local and traditional — including wood, iron, stone and brick — to maintain the rural and simple spirit of the building and blend with the many original building materials.
An aerothermal system is used to supply Vivienda en Guemes with hot water, a radiant floor and also warm the pool.
Completed in 2019, the home took 2- 1⁄2 years to build.
We asked Alonso Albendea a few questions about Vivienda en Guemes.
What inspired the home’s renovation?
We wanted to keep the barn structure and show there was something before that could be renovated and given a new life. We wanted to respect the space as much as possible.
How did you change the building?
We had to remove all the elements that weren’t needed anymore — such as interior walls and installations. Then we had to rebuild the floor, the foundations and the east facade. We made a new distribution of the windows because we needed more light inside and we wanted to have a bigger visual connection with the outdoors.
In wanting to create an open space, how and where did you decide to build storage areas?
The construction of the east façade was needed, so we took advantage of this. Instead of rebuilding the wall as it was in its origin (60 centimetres thick, a typical construction technique when the barn was first built), we used new materials that allow us to have good isolation with less thickness. This way, the east façade becomes not only a wall, it’s a huge storage made by plenty of wardrobes, kitchen, fireplace, etc.
You wanted to pay tribute to some parts of the original building. How did you do that?
The roof was the most important element of the building, not because it was especially nice or had a constructive value. The reason is that the owner’s father built it with his own hands, and it was completely necessary to keep it and restore it. Actually, this is the most important point of this project.
What challenges did you have in building the home
Keeping the roof was quite complicated. We had to hold the whole roof while we changed the foundations and pillars, and rebuilt the east façade. It wasn’t easy to integrate the existing elements with the new ones and make them fit as just one thing. Renovations are always slower than new buildings.
A lot of decisions were made during the construction because, each time we visited the construction during the different seasons of the year, we discovered new situations or elements we wanted to take advantage of, or integrate into the house.