The intervention of Nua arquitectures in this rural house aims to contribute to the recovery of the agricultural cultural heritage of Alt Camp in Tarragona.

On the highest point of an agricultural estate dedicated to the cultivation of olive and almond trees, near the Monastery of Santes Creus, in the Alt Camp of Catalonia, stands a small stone shelter that forms part of a group of isolated and minimal stone dwellings scattered throughout the territory. These shelters were originally built to manage the fields.

Following the ancestral logic of making the most of the resources, and built with the local stone, these ancient constructions blend in with the stone terraces that structure the whole territory, forming a single indissoluble unit that builds the identity of this cultural landscape.

Mas Carpi, the building where this intervention by NUA arquitectures takes place, is tucked under four pine trees and a centenary holm oak that provide shade and with views to the south, with the Camp de Tarragona and the sea at its feet. Its location is truly privileged.

“Of the original building, only a few stone walls remained standing, which had been renovated using fragile and precarious solutions that blurred its appearance and identity” say the architects of NUA.

The rehabilitation project of Mas Carpi , carried out by NUA arquitectures, is an operation of recovery and recycling of the original construction that preserves the memory and the experiences of those who worked and lived in the territory, maintaining the essence of the old construction and its close relationship with the landscape of Alt Camp.

“First of all, we restored the vertical wall structure with stone recovered from old collapsed terraces on the plot itself. Then we demolished and replaced the existing horizontal structure and roof with a new laminated wood structure and a ceramic flat tile roof. In addition, we improved the lighting and ventilation by opening new windows to achieve a better relationship between the interior and exterior and finally, we fitted out the interior with new furniture and renovated the installations to make the house totally self-sufficient through solar energy, which covers the entire electrical demand of the complex” say the architects of NUA.

Project: Mas Carpi

Architects: NUA arquitectures. Arnau Tiñena, María Rius, Ferrán Tiñena.
Partners: Gavina Piras, Manuela Piras, Paula Roch.
Technical architects: Josep Anguera
.
Location: Santes Creus, Tarragona.
Finished: 2023.
Photography: José Hevia.
Construction Company: Teules.
Structure: Egoin.
Panels with beams: Termochip.
Flat roof tiless: Tejas Borja.
Carpentry: Carreté Finestres.

Source: NUA Arquitectures.

NUA arquitectures

NUA arquitectures is a young studio located in Tarragona founded in 2013 by María Rius, Arnau Tiñena and Ferrán Tiñena, architects who graduated with honours from the Barcelona School of Architecture.

The studio’s work explores the fields of architecture and design at different scales through strategies that are sensitive to the memory of places and the environment, seeking to respond to the contemporary social and cultural challenges of cities and territories through interventions whose main objective is to improve people’s lives.

NUA arquitectures has diversified its activity in different fields and typologies, focusing its projects from the urban perspective to the design of detail simultaneously. The work and work carried out in recent years have recognised it as one of the emerging young studios in Spain and Europe, within the framework of the last three editions of the Arquia/próxima programme (2014, 2016 and 2018), and being selected this year 2023 as one of the 40 most promising studios under 40 on the continent according to the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies, and the Chicago Athenaeum Museum (Europe 40 under 40).

In 2016 it was one of the 7 studios selected to represent Catalonia at the Venice International Architecture Biennale, and recently the studio’s projects have been recognised at the European Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Awards (2019), at the FAD Awards (2018), at the Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (2018, 2021, 2023), at the ASCER Awards (2017, 2023) and at the Alejandro de la Sota Biennial (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023), including the extraordinary prize for the last 20 years of its edition in the rehabilitation category (1997-2017), among others.

NUA’s work has been published in different national and international media, and has been included in AV’s “Spain 2019” yearbook. Recently, the Argentinean publishing house Bisman has published a monograph on his work.

The studio has been invited to give lectures at various universities and institutions in Spain, Italy, Slovenia and the United States, such as the Design Museum and the Santa Mònica Arts Centre in Barcelona, the COAMadrid, the Schools of Architecture of Barcelona, Madrid Donosti, Valencia, Milan and Cagliari, the Archmarathon International Congress in Milan, the Piranesi Awards International Congress in Slovenia, the Scaliurbani Congress in Livorno, and the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University and the University of Virginia, among others.

NUA arquitectures has been part of the teaching team of the School of Art and Design of Reus (EADR), the University School of Design and Engineering of Barcelona (ELISAVA) and is currently part of the Projects and Urban Planning teaching team of the School of Architecture of Reus (EAR-URV). He has also participated as an external jury member in several critical sessions at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB-UPC), at the School of Architecture of the International University of Catalonia (UIC), at the La Salle School of Architecture (URL), and at the College of Architecture of Texas A&M University.

Project by NUA arquitectures