Asunción street is part of a neighborhood that grew at the end of the 19th century with the arrival of the railway to Valladolid (Spain). They were residential buildings for railway workers with a similar typology: three floors and a basement, a brick street facade covered with mortar and vertical openings with balconies, two intermediate structures made with wooden beams and pillars, a central staircase with two houses per floor, and a back façade also made with brick and open galleries.
Project Name: Rehabilitation of Residental Building Entre Medianeras. Valladolid
Studio Name: Buho architects
The passing of the years and the carelessness of its owners have made its luck worsen until reaching a point of degradation such that the living conditions have become miserable. A rehabilitation was necessary that in the end has lasted for more than a decade, divided into several episodes, like theatrical acts, as the novel History of a stair, by the spanish theatrical author Antonio Buero Vallejo..
ACT 1: The recent history of the property begins with a routine Technical Building Inspection (ITE). The technician who performs it reveals a large part of the building’s problems, and the rating was unfavorable. There were defects of humidity, rotting of the structure, illegal installations, detachments from the facade…
Deficiencies are solved as they appear. The electrical installation of the common areas is changed; practically all of the wooden pillars on the ground floor are replaced; the plaster on the façade is repaired, painting it yellow in composition with the adjoining buildings. This color will mark the chromatic destiny of the building.
ACT 2: Five years later, a plague of insects (cockroaches and bedbugs) and its corresponding environmental complaint trigger the intervention of the municipal authority. The building has to be evacuated, a fact that lasts for a whole year, coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic. All the inhabitants are relocated to nearby houses and an execution order is initiated to stop the plague and the problems manifested in the ITE.
The ruin of the two interior houses that occupy the bottom of the plot is declared. These are completely demolished, freeing up the space needed to provide a private courtyard for the ground floor dwellings.Once the patio has been cleaned up, the state of the gallery of the patio is analyzed. Over time it has been closed with brickwork irregularly by each of the tenants, who have used it for a multitude of uses. These interventions have caused the original wooden structure to deteriorate in such a way that its recovery is impossible. The pillars have completely rotted and the gallery is in the air. It must be demolished before it will fall spontaneously.ACT 3: The gallery is completely dismantled, and it is replaced by a new metal structure, with the same design as the old one, so that the original image of the building can be recovered on its rear façade: South-facing open galleries through continuous balconies. The finish on the façade is so deteriorated that it is decided to cover it with a mini-wave galvanized sheet with insulation, enclosing the holes with a white sheet, reinterpreting a classic façade. A galvanized collaborating sheet metal floor and the yellow color of the light structure characterize the final image, being read as a light addition superimposed on a massive construction of load-bearing walls.The staircase, with handrails and carved wooden bars, is fully repaired and maintained, being painted yellow, as is the façade and the structure of the gallery.
The galvanized minionda sheet also materially accompanies the renovation of common areas, being used as an occasional covering for walls and ceilings. A polycarbonate skylight illuminates the staircase from above and ventilates it.ACT 4: Finally, through responsible declarations of works and uses, the houses are renewed internally. New finishes on floors and walls offer brighter and more spacious spaces. An oriented strand board serves as a separation between the common and private areas, and unifies the roofs of the attics, offering a different and unitary appreciation of the undercovers.END: After three years of works, the building can be inhabited again. The gallery has had to be completely replaced, recovering the original typology but with a contemporary image. The staircase, as in the story of Buero Vallejo, basically remains the same.
