An impossible house made real: the good architecture of Vallribera Noray Arquitectes works miracles

The family who dreamed of building their home there arrived with a doubt as sincere as it was understandable. “Are you sure a house fits here? It’s a very narrow plot,” the architects recalled from their first meeting with the owners. But there was also a feeling, an intuition that this place could become an opportunity to change their lives. Llorenç Vallribera and Aleix Gil Noray, partners at Vallribera Noray Arquitectes, recognised that quiet confidence and accepted the challenge without hesitation: “A few days later, we began working on the project,” they say.

“To prevent the new house from being wedged between the party walls, we built to the maximum depth allowed by regulations. And since they didn’t need such a large house, we emptied the central area and arranged the main rooms between this interior patio and the façades,” the architects explain. It was a bold and poetic operation that created a vertical space crowned by a large skylight capable of flooding every level with light.

This “interior patio” acts as a domestic lung: a luminous void that organises the rooms. On one side are the kitchen, dining room and study; on the other, the playroom, bathrooms and laundry. The exterior façades house the three bedrooms, while circulation areas —stairs, walkways and connecting points— wrap around this radiant core that breathes from top to bottom. The result is a bright home that filters sunlight intelligently and turns light itself into architectural matter.

Materials that accompany the light

In this project, the choice of construction system is not a technical gesture but a statement of principles. “We chose a mixed construction system that combines timber with traditional masonry,” Llorenç and Aleix explain. The façades and roof use a lightweight timber frame and birch panels, while exposed brickwork is reserved for the walls that define the large vertical void and for spaces that interact directly with the exterior.

The floor slabs are built with solid timber, precisely assembled using tongue-and-groove beams that allow for phased construction and a natural, lightly varnished finish. The façades and roof use a lightweight timber frame and exposed birch plywood panels, while the exposed brickwork is reserved for transitional areas where contact with the exterior calls for a material that ages with dignity.

These intermediate spaces —open galleries, terraces and luminous corridors— become living thresholds, where the brick walls and ceramic flooring invite plants to take root and daily life to extend into this great interior space. Light, filtered through varying interior heights, shapes calm atmospheres even within the narrowness of the original volume.

A passive house that regulates itself

The project follows bioclimatic principles and passive construction strategies that optimise comfort without relying on mechanical heating or cooling systems. In winter, the south-facing openings and the skylight work as natural solar collectors; the walls and ceramic flooring store heat during the day and release it at nightfall. In summer, the eaves and adjustable shutters reduce direct solar exposure, while the skylight enhances night-time cross-ventilation.

“Thanks to these passive systems and proper insulation, the need for heating and cooling is eliminated. No mechanical climate control is installed and, instead, photovoltaic panels cover much of the home’s annual energy demand,” the architects explain. Here, efficiency is not an isolated objective but the natural consequence of an honest project attentive to climate and everyday wellbeing.

A home where once there was only doubt

Today, the initial questions no longer echo. Skepticism has given way to a luminous certainty: “On that narrow, elongated plot now stands a spacious, bright home that aligns with the lifestyle of a family who recognised the hidden virtues of a seemingly unlikely opportunity.”

This project proves that good architecture can transform constraints into beauty, turning an unlikely space into a serene, vibrant home. A house that reveals, once again, the distinctive way Vallribera Noray Arquitectes look after and accompany the people who place their trust in them, helping them live happier lives: with rigour, sensitivity and a quiet intelligence that makes the difficult appear effortless.

Project: 115ARI.
Location: Sabadell (Barcelona).
Surface area: 175 m².
Completion: 2024.
Architecture: Vallribera Noray Arquitectes.
Architects: Llorenç Vallribera Farriol, Aleix Gil Noray.
Collaborators: Sergi Ballester, architect. Joan Fontanet, technical architect. Míriam Molina, Structural Consultant. Daniel Vilavedra, Energy and Environmental Consultant. Nacho Villegas, Visualisation.
Consumo energía primaria no renovable: 3,69 kWh/m² año.
Non-renewable primary energy consumption: 3.69 kWh/m² per year
Total CO₂ emissions: 0.78 kg CO₂/m² per year
Heating demand: 3.06 kWh/m² per year
Cooling demand: 4.42 kWh/m² per year
Energy rating: A
Photography: José Hevia.

Vallribera Noray Arquitectes

There are architecture practices born from a technical vocation, and others that spring from a profound desire to accompany lives. Vallribera Noray Arquitectes clearly belongs to this second lineage: to those who understand that a house is not an object but an emotional refuge; that a project is not an exercise in style, but an opportunity for people to live more happily.

Founded on the conviction that architecture must be beautiful, comfortable and radically healthy, the practice works with the calm assurance of those who know well the transformative power of space. Their projects, always conceived from a bioclimatic approach and Passivhaus standards, seek a balance between formal harmony, energy efficiency and interior wellbeing. In every home, they strive to achieve that rare alchemy where beauty becomes an everyday experience, where comfort ceases to be an abstract quality to become a constant presence, and where the health of the home is, above all, an act of respect towards those who live in it and towards the planet we share.

For them, designing is an intimate, attentive and careful process. They listen, observe, ask questions. They immerse themselves in the real lives of the people who entrust them with their homes, steering clear of preconceived formulas. They analyse the site as one would study a living organism; they interpret it through its orientation, its climate and the memory of the place. Every decision is worked through with precision, maintaining full control of the process from the first sketch to the final handover, so that the construction of a home unfolds without upheavals, with the calm that allows one to enjoy the journey and the certainty that every resource has been invested where it truly matters.

The result is an honest architecture, clear in its intentions and rigorous in its execution. Houses that breathe naturally, that consume the minimum, that care for temperature, humidity and silence, built with materials that do not harm, that accompany, that age well, and where life —that real life made of everyday gestures— finds its best setting.

Behind this practice are two warm, sensitive, profoundly human architects. Their trajectories and personal passions —music, sport, the mountains— quietly filter into their way of working. Perhaps that is why their projects convey such an uncommon combination of mastery and emotion, of precision and tenderness, of technique and life.

Llorenç Vallribera Farriol, architect and founding partner

There are architects who approach their craft as if interpreting a score: with rhythm, rigour, sensitivity and a constant command of tempo. Llorenç Vallribera Farriol belongs to this lineage. Trained at ETSAV between 1995 and 2003, and enriched by an Erasmus stay at Helsinki University of Technology, he acquired from a very young age a broad outlook that combined Nordic precision with Mediterranean warmth.

His early professional years unfolded in renowned practices such as Espinet Ubach Arquitectes, ONL Arquitectura and TAC Arquitectes, where he honed his sense of detail and the discipline of work carried out to the highest standard. In 2006 he began to develop his own commissions and, in 2012, founded the studio that bears his name and would later crystallise as Vallribera Noray Arquitectes.

But to understand his way of designing, it is not enough to review his career. You have to look at his hobbies, that intimate territory where he finds his balance: handball, music and drawing. The drums, especially, have shaped his understanding of learning: long hours of practice, repetition, perseverance. The silent effort that sustains the magical moment of a concert. The training that precedes victory in a match. In architecture, as in music and sport, Llorenç knows that success is built from a blend of boldness and humility, of precision and dedication.

A perfectionist with a keen eye for detail, he takes every project as a personal responsibility. It matters to him that things are well done, fully resolved, meticulously finished. And he does so with a deep conviction: that an architect’s work only makes sense if it contributes to improving people’s lives, if it helps happiness —that rare word in professional language— to find a place to stay.

Aleix Gil Noray, architect and partner

If Llorenç brings the rhythm, Aleix brings the serene verticality of someone who reads the world from the mountains. Trained at ETSAV between 2005 and 2012 and with an Erasmus experience at the Budapest University of Technology, Aleix joined the practice in 2012. He collaborated with MVA Arquitectura y Estructura while consolidating his technical profile, and in 2015 he made a decisive choice: to commit fully to his role as project lead at Vallribera Arquitectes. Four years later, in 2019, he became a partner.

Architecture is his first passion, but the second is written into his hands, his back, the way he inhabits the landscape: the mountains. Climbing, ski touring, mountaineering. His bond with Montserrat —his emotional geography— is deep, almost biographical. His adventures, shared as small everyday epics on @elprincepdelesmaduixes, speak of a restless, persevering, respectful spirit who finds in nature a school of life.

That character is reflected in everything he does: Aleix is approachable, kind, calm. He speaks when necessary, thinks before deciding and observes before intervening. This quietness, together with his technical and human commitment, brings an essential balance to the practice. His way of working is imbued with the same ethic that guides his ascents: preparation, prudence, respect for the environment and a silent determination that supports every step.

In his architecture —as in the mountains— beauty is never forced; it is found. It emerges from an honest, patient process, attentive to every detail.

Project by Vallribera Noray Arquitectes