Between 2004 and 2008, the veteran Tarragó house, a residential building at the confluence of Urgell and Floridablanca streets, was an occupied building. Back then, it was known as La Carboneria and displayed on the façade of simple lines and brick-paneled windows several painted hot air balloons: one three stories high, another in which the sail evoked an Orsini bomb, as well as others examples of what their authors call urban art and other citizens qualify less enthusiastically.
The house attracted attention. But the story gave for much more. It was considered the oldest right-hand building in the Eixample – it was started in 1864 -, contemporary with the houses opposite Consell de Cent / Roger de Llúria, and, like these, by the architect Antoni Valls Galí. The peculiarities of Tarragó also came from afar. When it was built, with a ground floor plus four, the layout of the Eixample was still under discussion. And there was the possibility, if a planned boulevard was opened at the back, that the rear facade would have views. For this reason, the developer, for whom the views could facilitate the sale of flats, proposed arches much more generous than the discreet openings of the main facade.
Finally, there was no boulevard, the rear facade was blinded between two central walls, with which it formed a triangle, and it was decided to wall up the wide arches. This was the case, for almost a century and a half, until it was to proceed with the vacancy, the City Council decided to classify the building and ask the new owner to restore the original. Before getting into the matter, the aforementioned owner knocked down the building’s stairs to prevent another occupation.
When Ángel Borrego was commissioned to bring the Tarragó / Carboneria back to life, its condition was an invitation to demolition: walled-up facades, no stairs and, behind, a closed and neglected courtyard. The intervention was restrained and effective: he recovered the rear arcades and put together an imposing metal structure in the courtyard through which the new vertical communications run: the elevator at the apex and the walkways, two on each floor, which they give access to the floors, and form a space of relationship. The work is this, nothing more and nothing less; also a respect for the original central wall, reinforced, a taste for showing, here and there, the old history of the house, mirrors in the structure that bring sunlight to the patio and floors, and an unexpected swimming pool with planters on the roof.
Old buildings are the result of many vicissitudes. Integrating them all is not simple and rarely leads to optimal solutions. But you have to try to make them brave and dignified, as in this case. And more so at a time when rehabilitating the already built heritage is essential to fight for decarbonisation.
