There is something of a primordial dwelling in House 1736, designed in Barcelona by the studio H Arquitectes, led by David Lorente, Josep Ricart, Xavier Ros, and Roger Tudó. Its thick walls give it an ancestral atmosphere, as if built from earth. They were constructed using a compaction technique similar to traditional rammed earth, in this case from a mixture of selected sands and gravels with a small proportion of cement—a so-called “poor” concrete, cast in situ using formwork. At the same time, a triple-height central atrium housing the living room, onto which all other spaces open, gives the house a certain monumentality. Four tall pillars reinforce its architectural presence with the aura of a domestic temple.
Located in the Sarrià neighborhood of Barcelona, the house sits on a long plot with a rear garden, surrounded by other buildings. In this urban setting and due to the plot's depth, H Arquitectes decided to introduce a central patio for natural light and ventilation, creating a spatiality that is both distinctive and expressive. “The project starts with the challenge of qualifying the center, prioritizing it, and making it the best place in the house,” explain the architects.
The house combines poor concrete, Douglas fir wood in beams and furniture, and steel.
Thanks to the generous street frontage and zoning regulations allowing ground floor plus two stories, the house reaches about 400 m². It includes guest and service rooms and a large office with independent access from the atrium. On the second floor, a cloister overlaps the perimeter of the central patio, generating intermediate spaces for sitting, reading, or playing.
The architects used "poor" concrete for sustainability reasons.
After passing through the entrance hall, the 13-meter-high atrium opens up. Its unusual verticality evokes elevation. The construction method provides a cave-like materiality, creating a unique atmosphere. The thick 20 cm layers of concrete contribute to a natural appearance while ensuring thermal stability and humidity control year-round.
In summer, the skylight remains open; in winter, it closes automatically thanks to a rain sensor.
This material has three types of finishes: in the living room, it is coarse and raw, reinforcing the feeling of an outdoor courtyard while helping absorb sound. In the bedrooms, the finish is smooth; in the bathrooms and service areas, it’s polished, revealing stone particles and evoking a rock-carved appearance.
“By reclaiming traditional typologies like interior patios or atriums, this central space also indirectly qualifies all surrounding areas. Like the old Gothic courtyards of Barcelona, they retain cool air during summer nights,” explain the architects. The skylight is a retractable glass roof with a rain sensor, ensuring light and sky views year-round.
On the second floor, overlooking the atrium, spaces for reading, rest, or play unfold.
“The house,” say the architects, “aims to offer spaces to reconnect with architecture and climate—timeless, existential conditions. Where natural light reminds us of planetary cycles, and air circulates through an intelligent dialogue between built form and local environment. Spaces defined by minimally altered materials that reveal their origins.”
The kitchen-dining area, arranged in a single space, lies between the interior atrium and the rear garden patio.
Concrete, wood, and steel structure the project. The floors are finished with continuous troweled concrete. Douglas fir features in beams, carpentry, and built-in furniture. Steel appears in custom elements such as the staircase railing and the large folding glass door that fully opens the kitchen-dining space to the garden.
“It’s a very comfortable house,” says the Huguet family. It faithfully reflects their original wishes: a home with double-height spaces, natural and austere in structure, with something of a cave to inhabit. They chose H Arquitectes—whom they didn’t previously know—after visiting some of their works, drawn by their treatment of light and space. The house holds great sentimental value, as it was built in Sarrià, the family’s neighborhood for five generations. “My great-grandmother ran a grocery shop here,” recalls the father.
At the end of the plot is a garden patio. Traditional persianas alicantinas regulate sunlight at the rear façade.
H Arquitectes’ singular proposal for House 1736 has just received the international Interior Häuser Award 2025, in addition to a FAD Architecture Prize. In this project, the studio reflects on gravitational principles that govern both life and architecture—an invisible force linking the house to natural phenomena and connecting human bodies on a scale greater than the domestic. A design with natural proportions that transcend domesticity, exploring a new ambient monumentality. Spaces that don’t rely on machines—where architecture becomes decisive once again.