A unique home in an old warehouse

I wanted to experience "a way of life." Ignacio Morente Gemas confesses that when he was studying architecture, he already looked at the facade of that old straw warehouse in the old town of a municipality in Baix Llobregat. Built in 1924, it had been abandoned for over twenty years, and when he was able to buy it during the pandemic, he didn't hesitate. Now the project calls to him. The workshop of dreams, because that dark, dilapidated warehouse has become the home he shares with his partner and also the headquarters of IMG Taller de Arquitectura, the studio that bears his initials. Furthermore, it's the place where he's been able to experiment not only with a different way of living, but also with architectural issues such as spatial design, the use of materials, light penetration, ventilation, and, above all, the use of existing resources.

Ignacio Morente says he has learned a lot from the experience of transforming the old warehouse into his home and workshop, and that this learning has taken place in many ways: "I have been an architect, client, developer, and, in many ways, also a builder." In fact, if the renovation of this 200 m2 space² It cost him just over €150,000 because many of the elements were self-built, while others were exchanged with collaborators. This is the case with the nearly 100-year-old iron sheet flooring that a client gave him in exchange for a project, which he installed himself like metal parquet. In any case, the young architect considers this his first major project because, moreover, it's a life project.

On the YouTube channel My living space, where Ignacio Morente talks about architecture, explains that his goal here was to "freeze time," conserving the walls, the roof, and the history of the site. "For me, the best way to work is to try to minimize as much as possible and remove as many elements as possible that distort what already exists," he says. Therefore, he has given a new meaning to this originally open-plan space, uncovering the solid brick walls and restoring the spectacular beams and also the no less spectacular roof, respecting both the original light sources and the antique ceramic pieces between the beams. It is the fulfillment of another dream: to make the passage of time perceptible, with all its aesthetic power.

If Ignacio Morente and his partner acquired a single space, that of the old warehouse, they now have a unique living space, reflecting the preservation of the site's history, but above all, the way of living there: the tradition of the place coexists with the contemporary flexibility of its uses. This is a workshop-style dwelling with no interior doors, except for those that close off the two toilets. Although all the areas of the house are interconnected—the kitchen with the living room and study, also with the bedroom and bathroom, and even with the small patio created by reducing the size of the warehouse—a significant degree of privacy has been achieved in each area.

The strategy followed by Ignacio Morente was to conceive four platforms on four distinct levels (clearly illustrated in the elevation drawing). At the level of the entrance and the rear courtyard, the kitchen occupies the first platform and opens upwards into the immense space of the living room, while downwards, with a much smaller opening, it leads to the bedroom, located on the lowest level. In fact, although the height of this nave allowed for the creation of distinct levels and a mezzanine above the kitchen designed as the architect's study, the bedroom emerged from scratching the floor and constructing a box that, thanks to a glass window above the bed, allows one to contemplate the sky as soon as one wakes up.