A couple in Barcelona sought openness and privacy for their growing family. Their architect, a friend, knew just how to provide it.
In 2003, Monica Aguirre and Victor Ferrer inherited a four-story house in Barcelona that was more than a century old and in poor condition. When they decided to move in four years later, they sold the top two floors to finance the renovation of the bottom half. By that time, they were expecting a child (within a couple of years, they would have two) and were focused on the things that would be useful to their growing family.
On the ground floor, in a room looking out to the rear patio, they created a combined kitchen, dining area and family room, where they could perform household tasks while the children played with their toys. In the backyard, they added a small swimming pool for relief in the scorching summers.
“It was a little bit crazy,” recalled Ms. Aguirre, 49, a psychologist. Limited to 1,300 square feet across two floors, the couple understood that there would be sacrifices. Something had to give, and that something was a living room. For years, they didn’t have one.
As the children grew up, the lack of a ground-floor social space became nettlesome for both generations. Entertaining was a challenge. There was no place to watch a movie with a group of friends of any age. That’s when Eugeni Bach stepped in.
Mr. Bach is an architect who, with his wife and professional partner, Anna Bach, regularly socializes with Ms. Aguirre and Mr. Ferrer. He knows their interests, and he knows their home. When they came to him for help, he recalled, he was able to skip past the usual battery of questions to clients — “How do you want to live? What kinds of objects do you like? Blah, blah, blah,” in his words — and knuckle down to providing the living room they had forgone for so long.
