Hiha Studio

Competition for the new Sports City of the Damm Football Club in Montjuïc, Barcelona.

Our proposal foregrounds nature as the key element throughout the sports complex by incorporating the natural environment and landscape of Montjuïc. The layout for the sports complex is based on two parallel rings that direct viewers’ attention towards the football pitches in the centre, while also creating the feeling of a stadium situated within natural surroundings. We are using the parabolic curve – the symmetrical U-shaped arc – generated by a ball when it is kicked as a geometric basis in the project design. The creative use of surplus land, reuse of rainwater and the use of vegetation with low water needs are at the heart of this project. Using these and other sustainability and energy efficiency methods, the sports complex is designed to be a nearly zero-energy building (NZEB) and energy self-sufficient.

Project year: 2020
Area: 3200 m² + 3ha landscaping
Location: Montjuïc, Barcelona
Organized by Fundació Damm
Co-authors: Max De Cusa Arquitectes S L
Collaborators: Ardèvols consultors associats, dsm arquitectes estructuristes, Esitec, Arquitectura Agronomia Teresa Galí-Izard
CGI: Graph Barcelona
Video: Mun films

Primary Care Center CAP Competition La LLagosta

Finalists! 3rd position! In the competition for the new CAP la Llagosta. Organized by Infrastructures.cat

Our proposal for the new primary care centre (CAP) in La Llagosta is based on the creation of a well-organised building that is both economic and clear in distribution and function, as well as flexible in terms of use and layout. We designed a rectangular structure, punctuated by two large, leafy courtyards, which provide light and a sense of space to the adjacent interior spaces. The main entrance is located on the south west aspect of the building, and faces the new plaza. Together with the market and the city hall, this creates a focal point for activity in the area.

Organised by infraestructures.cat
Project year: 2021
Area: 1740 m²
Location: La Llagosta, Barcelona
Co-authors: Taller SAU

House Renovation, Cristina&Rafael

The aims of this project are two-fold: breaking the symmetry of two existing semi-detached houses, and providing a living space capable of contracting or expanding the perception of space according to the number of people living together. The entire project is structured by means of a single piece of furniture, which allows us to break the symmetry and control the feeling of space according to the needs of the inhabitants.

Project year: 2021
Area: 256 m²
Location: Papiol, Barcelona
Photography: Pol Viladoms

Volpelleres Forest Park

The agricultural landscape, areas of crops and stream-bordered orchards of Sant Cugat del Vallès were preserved right until the end of the last century.
The Volpelleres forest, despite its newly acquired urban identity, is actually a fragment of forest. It is in the vicinity of the stream where the riverside vegetation of great ecological value is concentrated, which we find in the heart of the Volpelleres forest. Over time, the lands previously occupied by crops have been incorporated into the original arboreal area, the result of an expansion of forest principally formed by pine trees.
The forest and the path that runs through it retain topographical and vegetative characteristics that move them away from the conventional image of an urban park and bring them closer to that of a mountain path. This character is the reason that the project is focused on preserving the identity of the forest, carrying out minimal actions that increase its accessibility and improve the service to its urban environment with different treatments on the existing paths and limits. In this way we achieve an accessible circuit of 1,500m inside a forest environment.

Client: AMB and Ajuntament de Sant Cugat
Constructer: Sorigué
Project year: 2020
Co-authors: Sergi Godia
Area: 12ha
Location: Sant Cugat del Vallès
Photography: Pol Viladoms

Apartment renovation in Girona

The project consists of the conversion of the ground floor of an old warehouse in to an apartment. The strategy for the project consisted of maintaining these 3 structural bays, which helped to organize the new proposal and to distribute the new program within the apartment.
A further strategy of the project is the preservation of the relationship of the 3 structural bays once the space is fragmented with the new distribution. To maintain the relationship of the 3 volumes, whilst enhancing them, a curved form is used. Using the arch form generates rhythms and spatial continuities, allowing the space to take advantage of the maximum height of the ground floor and obtain different sensations within the apartment.
Unfinished ceramic elements are used as the main material in the upper parts of the walls. These pieces generate stripes of colour that provide warmth and plasticity to the apartment, whilst also creating spatial continuity and emphasizing the geometry of the arches.
Hiha Studio with the collaboration of the young artist Kushim Mattson, has created a new series of transparent furniture. These pieces of domestic furniture adapt to the straight and curved shapes of the apartment.

Project year: 2020
Area: 130m² + 80m² terrace
Location: Girona
Photography: Pol Viladoms

Social Housing Competition

Finalist, project for 36 dwellings in Vilafranca del Penedès

The project is organized according to a stripe scheme that orders the building: rooms, service areas and circulations.
The 36 dwellings are distributed in 6 floors. They distribute six houses per floor. 3 houses on the north and 3 on the south facade. They all share the same typology and characteristics. The inner hollow gives us one stripe where it is creating a large central courtyard where we place the communication nucleus and spaces in distribution linked to access to housing. The proposal is solved with a single core of communications, from which through crossings access all housing by encouraging neighborhood socialization, with long and unseen visuals. This is a sign of the desire to increase the sense of security in this Community area.
Because of the existing topographical conditioning of the parcel, we place the ground floor access and the parking spot where the street scrape matches Gloria Laso Street, this made possible to centralize the core and the ground floor program on one side of the parcel. The remaining surface area connect the community space to the interior of the island and allow flat-footed access to the parking lot.
The 33 parking spaces they are connected in two floors and are communicated by an invading ramp. Undercovering only 40% of the surface. The ramp is set to 3 meters of a width since the parking surface it serves is less than 500m² and the distribution of the parking lot would allow if it were the case to make a ramp 5 meters width.

Project year: 2020
Dwellings: 36 units
Location: Vilafranca del Penedès
In collaboration with: Sergi Godia
Organized by INCASOL

Social Housing Competition, Olesa de Montserrat

Proposal for a contest of 33 apartments for young people in Olesa de Montserrat. The creation of two separate buildings of a compact volumetry results from the urban conditions. The typological proposal is based on the repetition of apartments with a size of about 60m² joined together by longitudinal balconies. This repetition gets interrupted by the proposed corner typology in the end of the building. The circulations are solved by adding a vertical core for the building itself and for exterior walkways. Ventilation and lighting of interior pieces are achieved through patios which are responding to facade. The materiality is based on two different languages, on the permeable grid of the circulation areas and balconies and on the compact and solid design of the remaining.

Promoter: INCASOL
Project year: 2019
Dwellings: 33 units
Location: Olesa de Montserrat, Barcelona
In collaboration with: Sergi Godia
Architectural visualization: Graph Visual Studio

Single Family House Renovation, Montcada

Renovation of a ground floor family house located between two party walls. The living area are connected to the new patio, situated in the back of the plot, providing a maximum of intimacy and an optimal light situation.

The strategic approach lies in the distinctive corridor which connects the entrance and living area through a curved shape. While normally the movement through this typology house is linear and monotonous, the presence of this curve volume generates a dynamic movement, accompanying and leading through the space.

The opening of the room-high doors enlarges the field of view and dissolves all spatial borders, developing a continuous space.

The composition of the facade is based on three rectangular apertures. A ceramic lattice, which covers two of them, benefits the privacy. The third one, the main door, is covered in the same pattern in order to support the impression of symmetry.

The materiality is based on ceramic elements of the facade and the floor, standing in contrast with the neutral materiality of the varnished carpentry and furniture.

Project year: 2019
Area: 80m² + 20m² patio
Location: Montcada i Reixac, Barcelona
Photography: Pol Viladoms

Apartment Renovation, Ausiàs March

Renovation of an apartment located in a building of the 1960 with a strong triangular shape, highly fragmented with small rooms and a long dark corridor crossing the entire apartment. The purpose of this project was to rebuild the flat, change the original distribution and eliminating all types of passage space.

The strategy was to take the urban axes, surrounding the building, and transfer them into the apartment. By that axes for the new distribution were generated as well as a new core, which connects the interior and exterior of all the rooms in order to provide a flexible open space.

Project year: 2018
Area: 115m²
Location: Eixample, Barcelona
Photography: Pol Viladoms

Softheads Booth, Maison&Objet Paris

Display installation for Softheads at Maison & Objet, Paris, by Hiha Studio, with the collaboration of Marina Petit. The concept is based on the use of the arch as the main element. Throughout history, the arch has enveloped us, sheltered us, framed our surroundings and enhanced our most significant artworks and objects.

The shape, repetition and depth of the arch are used to create and order the display space. The installation, with its use of arches and color, pays homage to paintings by Giorgio De Chirico, making the Softheads fauna the sculptures that finish the canvas. The display space has been created with two overlapping modular elements that respond to the different characteristics of the products to be displayed.

The choice of material for the display is based around porcelain-coloured melamine panels, which create a sense of spatial neutrality while allowing the floor and arches, where ochre carpeting is used, to provide contrast and texture.

Project year: 2019
Area: 15m²
Location: Paris, France
In collaboration with: Marina Petit
Photography: Schmott Photographers

Apartment Renovation, Vilapicina

Renovation of an apartment from 1964, originally very fragmented and with little natural light due to its orientation and layout. Our proposal was to strategically remove walls, widen entrances and create large sliding doors, some of them made of glass, to increase visual depth and to allow more light into the apartment. Spaces were widened and interconnected, blurring the dividing lines of functionality between each room.

The colour palette was based around the brown tones of the natural park, moss green for the laquered wood, kitchen and bathroom fittings and floor tiling in these areas, and, finally, the grey colour of the granite.

Project year: 2019
Area: 85m²
Location: Nou Barris district, Barcelona
Photography: Pol Viladoms

Social Housing Competition, Sant Boi

Competition proposal for 44 social housing apartments in Sant Boi de Llobregat. The volume is based on two intersecting cubes generating six corners, each of them belonging to one of the apartments that form the floor plan. Due to this aggregation, one single typology, with always two orientations, is achieved. The façade is solved with a prefabricated grid that transmits a rational language and makes a reference to the nearby industrial tissue. At the same time it is domesticated with adaptable solar protection. A diagonal that visually communicates from the interior to the exterior through crossing a sequence of spaces, structures the apartments of 56m².

Promoter: INCASOL
Project year: 2019
Dwellings: 44 units
Location: Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona
In collaboration with: Sergi Godia
Structure consultant: Best Costales Jaen
Engineering consultant: Caba
Architectural visualizations: Graph Visual Studio

House Renovation, Alt Pirineu

In this house refurbishment, the existent cross timer wood structure organizes the space in eight quadrants with a different programmatic nature. The newly realized openings allow for views on the mountainous environment while the original materiality of the house, such as the stone walls or the wooden floors have been preserved. The staircase has been designed with the aim of letting the light enter to the lower floor.

Project year: 2018-2019
Area: 105m²
Location: Alt Pirineu, Pallars Sobirà (Lleida)
Photography: Pol Viladoms

House Renovation, Cal Jordi & Anna

The project consisted in updating and adapting an existing building to the present, to new materials, to new ways of life. The main approach of the project was to empty the existing building in a selective way in order to attain the project aims and provide for the functional needs of the clients. This void allowed for the elimination of existing elements and for a reduction in the amount of surface requiring remodeling and thereby implied economic savings for the client. This decrease in remodeling area allowed us to provide for the functional needs required by customers almost automatically. Visual relationships were generated between the new rooms, both vertically and horizontally.

Project year: 2016–2018
Area: 303m²;
Location: El Poal (Lleida)
In collaborations with: Mercè Amat, Ton Ardèvol
Photography: Pol Viladoms

Apartment Renovation, Pius XII

Refurbishment of an apartment located in a building of 1970 in Lleida. The goal of the proposal is the creation of a large living space on the best oriented façade. The terrazzo pavement has been revalued in conjunction with a ceramic piece of the same tonality.

Project year: 2018
Area: 85m²
Location: Av. Pius XII, Lleida
Photography: Bernat Ardèvol

Apartment Renovation, Carme

Refurbishment of an apartment located in a traditional modernist building of 1880 in Barcelona. The goal of our proposal is to make a modern apartment without giving up its history. In order to achieve this the proposal consists in the use of interior windows along the corridor that will transform the center of the apartment into a bright space with visual connections to the adjacent rooms. Respecting the traditional modernist elements like the tile pavement and the plaster moldings of the celling, preserves the essence of this historical apartment.

Project year: 2017
Area: 215m² + 140m² terrace
Location: El Raval District, Barcelona
In collaboration with: Julia Goula
Photography: Marzio Clementi

Apartment Renovation, Vallirana

Renovation of an apartment located in a building of 1970. Originally, there was en excess of subdivided rooms which made the space feel undersized in relation to the actual size of this flat. Replacing the original distribution for a flexible one using mirrored sliding doors, helps creating the illusion of space that spreads to the bedrooms and communal areas. Also it allows the rooms to change and adapt its shape and size according to different individual needs.

Project year: 2017
Area: 62m²
Location: El Putxet District, Barcelona
Photography: Pol Viladoms

Apartment Renovation, A&A

The purpose of this project was to rebuild the entire flat trying to maximize the space for a young couple with some family expectations. The entrance hall, the kitchen and the bathroom are placed in the central core of the flat. The design aimed to connect interior and exterior in order to create a flexible, light and open space between the centerpiece of the flat and both façades. 

Apartment Renovation, A&A
Project year: 2017
Area: 80m² + 16m² terrace
Location: La Salut District, Barcelona
Photography: Pol Viladoms

Apartment Renovation, Mir

Refurbishment of a traditional 70s flat for a young couple in l’Eixample, Barcelona. The project is based on the creation of a discontinuous storage wall and the creation of an open space to allow for visual continuity and greater amplitude of space.

Project year: 2015
Area: 70m²
Location: Eixample District, Barcelona
In collaboration with: Mercè Amat
Photography: Bernat Ardèvol

House Extension, Cal Miret

The project consists in extending the existing house by creating a new volume for the apartment and parking area. The connection is made through a courtyard and a new staircase.

Project year: 2010–11
Area: 140m²
Location: El Poal (Lleida)
In collaboration with: Mercè Amat
Photography: Mostassa Estudi Gràfic