Spanish firm YLAB Arquitectos has completed a faceted house on the outskirts of Barcelona that appears to have been stretched down a hill.

Located beside the Collserola Natural Park, the three-storey family home is constructed on a small plot, so YLAB Arquitectos designed the building as a simple cube then distorted it to make better use of space and viewpoints.

"The objectives of the project were to get the maximum possible building area within a tight budget and an optimised orientation of all openings while protecting the privacy of the owners," said the architects.

"The upper faces are extruded upwards to form the roof," they continued. "The side faces rotate to frame significant scenic moments, mindful of the neighbours' privacy."

The house is constructed from concrete and features a white-rendered exterior with seamless edges.

Windows and doors can be concealed behind perforated aluminium shutters that sit flush with the walls.

A double-height kitchen and dining room is positioned on the upper-ground floor and includes drawers, cupboards and counters built from dark-tinted elm, while the lower-ground floor contains a living room and studio with access to the garden.

Stone provides flooring throughout the the house and lines the walls of a top-floor bathroom. The main bedroom is also on this floor.

A Corten steel fence encloses the site and features vertical slits that offer glimpsed views of the house from the street.

Other Spanish houses we've featured include a residence comprising a cluster of concrete cubes, a family home in a renovated stable and a house with a glazed living room that thrusts outwards. See more houses in Spain »

Photography is by Marcela Grassi.

Here's a project description from the architects:

Vallvidrera House

The project is situated in the Vallvidrera neighbourhood, a residential area with views overlooking the city of Barcelona, surrounded by the Collserola natural park, in a very sloped and small plot situated between a valley and a pine forest.

The objectives of the project were to get the maximum possible building area within a tight budget and an optimised orientation of all openings while protecting the privacy of the owners. To achieve this, a compact three level volume was created.

The geometry arises directly from the plot given geometry and slope, reinterpreting the aesthetic of the site’s vernacular architecture with its sloped roof, widening on the upper floors to gain some additional area. Formally the volume is a single cube in which every face has been divided into four quadrants. The upper faces are extruded upwards to form the roof. The side faces rotate to frame significant scenic moments, mindful of the neighbours’ privacy.

The façade consists of a continuous skin that provides the same matt white aspect to walls, roofs and openings. The fixed windows are made of glass panes totally flush with the façade, and the operating ones have a white perforated aluminium shutter also installed flush with the skin.

A perforated Corten steel front fence at the low end of the plot gives pedestrian and car access to the property. The exterior spaces are formed by two terraces and the sloped areas have been modelled forming triangulated ramps. Pavements are made in multi-coloured slat, typical of this area, using long narrow tiles for the plane zones, and smaller irregular pieces on sloping ones.

The entrance level is composed by the first dormitory, the bath and the kitchen with a dining room area. The kitchen is in a double height space with two large windows that offer the best views over the valley. In the upper level there is the master bedroom and its bath, both oriented to the pine forest at the back side of the plot.

The semi-buried lower floor is formed by the technical and storage rooms, a living room and a studio both with access to the garden. In the interior of the house the floors and bathroom walls are covered with Capri natural stone and the walls and doors are finished in ivory white colour paint. In the double height area, large built-in dark tinted elm furniture builds the kitchen and dining area wall furniture and the island, ascending to the upper floor to form the master dormitory cupboards. 

Architecture and interior design: YLAB Arquitectos, Barcelona
Authors: Tobias Laarmann and Yolanda Yuste
Project: One family house edification
Client: Private
Area: 286.91 square metres
Location: Vallvidrera, Barcelona

Craftsmen: Coter de Construcciones, Ebanistería Agüera
Structure and walls: prefabricated pieces of celullar concrete by Ytong
Facade outer skin: single layer coating Weber.Pral Terra Cemarksa, white painted
Roof covering: ceramic pieces Colortech, by Tau Cerámica
Outdoor paving: Dark rusty grey slate
Metallic fence: Corten steel sheets cut and folded, designed by YLAB
Interior flooring: polished Capri natural limestone
Walls and ceilings: ivory white matt plastic paint