The studio of architect Glòria Duran rehabilitates a house in l’Alt Empordà that once again tells its story with a brighter voice

In the historic centre of Palau-Saverdera, where narrow streets still preserve the ancient flavour of l’Alt Empordà, a party-wall house comes back to life. Its history —like that of so many rural homes in this area— had been shaped in two distinct layers: domestic life unfolding on the upper floor, light and luminous, and agricultural and livestock activity occupying the ground floor, a shadowed realm of storerooms and stables. Today, under the patient and rigorous gaze of architect Glòria Duran Torrellas and interior designer Pol Rigau, this fragmented past finds a renewed unity.

The project begins with a gesture of reconciliation: to unify both floors, stitch them together with light and establish a contemporary order without erasing memory. The intervention is respectful, almost reverential. The original volume remains intact; the Catalan vaults that silently supported the structure are restored; stone walls and arches once concealed beneath layers of previous alterations are carefully revealed. The house thus reclaims its primordial essence, an honest character that the architect chooses to place at the centre of the project.

Day area on the first floor

The social spaces are located on the first floor, accessed via the garden’s external staircase. Here, the house opens up, breathes and allows itself to be inhabited generously. A glass vestibule shields the entrance from the tramontana winds before leading into a large L-shaped space that brings together the living and dining areas. The fireplace —open on three sides— acts as a warm hinge between both environments. The kitchen is positioned on the entrance façade, directly connected to the terrace overlooking the garden patio. The whole functions as a single continuous space, in constant dialogue with the outdoors thanks to its two terraces: one facing the access and a generous rear terrace, west-facing, offering spectacular views over the Bay of Roses.

Night area on the ground floor

The ground floor, naturally darker and with a single external façade, is reserved for the private areas. Two bedrooms with Catalan vaults open onto the garden through porticoed porches, establishing a serene dialogue between interior and exterior. At the centre, where darkness had once been absolute, the service spaces and the new staircase are located, carefully attached to the party walls. From above, a skylight pours light into this vertical void, creating a double-height space that transforms the perception of the floor.

A reading room acts as a distributor, leading to the laundry room, a bathroom and the main suite at the rear, covered by a delicate mocador vault. This room receives natural light through a newly created interior patio, a small yet decisive gesture that illuminates the space and provides natural ventilation.

The rehabilitation brings together tradition and sustainability with the naturalness that defines the studio’s work. Floors and roofs have been thermally insulated, carpentry replaced with wooden frames featuring thermal break and low-emissivity double glazing, and all lighting designed using LED technology. Climate control is resolved through aerothermal energy, reinforced by the warmth of the new fireplace. The house is also prepared for the future installation of photovoltaic panels.

Within this restored home unfolds a principle that defines architecture in l’Empordà when approached with sensitivity: the balance between preservation and transformation. Every recovered element breathes the memory of the place; every contemporary gesture adds comfort, clarity and a renewed way of inhabiting. In Glòria Duran’s hands, the house is not only renewed — it once again tells its story with a brighter voice.

Project: Palau-Saverdera.
Location: Palau-Saverdera (Girona).
Built area: 293 m².
Completed: 2025.
Architecture and interior design: Estudio Glòria Duran.
Architect Glòria Duran. Interior designer Pol Rigau.
Construction: Mestre Obres Ass. Arnera
Installations: Jordi Castella.
Carpentry: Berbio Fusters.
Aluminium work: Aluminis Albera.
Metalwork: Metalper.
Photography: Olma Studio.  

Glòria Duran Torrellas

Since beginning her professional journey in 1992, Glòria Duran Torrellas has built a singular career that moves naturally between Barcelona and the intimate landscape of l’Empordà, a territory that has become one of her essential geographies. Educated at the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona, she belongs to a generation that learned to listen to architecture before drawing it; to understand light, materiality and the silent weight of places as a legacy that deserves to be interpreted with respect. Since then, her studio has worked with a serene coherence, guided by the conviction that rehabilitation is an act of humility and, at the same time, a way of restoring life.

Alongside new-build projects, Glòria Duran has developed a solid expertise in the restoration and transformation of traditional masías in l’Empordà, a territory to which she is deeply connected and which she knows with the precision of those who move slowly through it. In these interventions, her architecture acts as a subtle yet firm thread: preserving what is essential, reinventing what is necessary and proposing spaces where simplicity becomes synonymous with beauty. Her projects reveal a meticulous balance between tradition and contemporaneity, between the austerity of authentic materials and the sophistication of a timeless gaze.

In 2012, the studio welcomed interior designer Pol Rigau, who studied Interior Design at EINA School in Barcelona. Since then, his presence has been decisive in the evolution of the practice, contributing a sensitive and contemporary perspective that engages in dialogue with architecture from within. His work has become a key element of the studio, reinforcing coherence between space, materiality and ways of inhabiting.

Glòria Duran’s architecture does not seek prominence, but harmony. In each project there is a quiet desire for permanence, a commitment to craftsmanship and a deep respect for the stories embedded in stone. This is her work: an exercise in sensitivity and precision that turns rehabilitation into a poetic act; a dialogue between past and future in which each house recovers its voice and each space once again offers a place to inhabit with calm.

Project by Glòria Duran Torrellas