Located on the ground floor of a significant building —La Finca Roja— in the city of Valencia (Spain) and taking some of the building’s most notable features, such as the red brick and the various mosaic tiles that shape the floor, the first part of Francesc Rife Studio‘s work was to preserve the raw essence of the space. Secondly, the black-stained poplar wood unfolds and expands in the interior void as a discrete and neutral material. The impartiality of this color contributes to the fact that any historical evidence is remarkable, either the tiles that covered the fireplace, the ceilings, or the “wounds” that the previous distributions have left and allow to read on the floor the multitude of rooms that the house originally hosted.
La Finca Roja: Built by the architect Enrique Viedma in 1929, this emblematic residential building takes the identity of Dutch expressionism. The outstanding use of green ceramics and the unique circular towers, as well as the polygonal bay-window, make up the unique facade of a building that tried to achieve a new housing model for the middle class timidly leading the transition to rationalism.
Photos: David Zarzoso
