Architects in Barcelona

An architecture studio in Eixample

RAAR is a studio of three architects based at C/ Bruc 136, in Eixample, Barcelona. Most of our work in the city is full renovations of existing homes and restorations of warehouses and workshops: apartments in old buildings with high ceilings and Catalan vaults, terraced houses between party walls and industrial premises that become homes.

In Barcelona you almost never design from scratch. You design inside something that already exists, with its structure, its neighbours, its light well and its rules. That is why we always start with a visit: we measure, see what deserves to stay and tell you honestly what can be done.

What we do in Barcelona

• Full apartment renovations: new layout, new services, light and ventilation, keeping what makes the home unique (vaults, joinery, mosaics, beams).
• House renovations and extensions: detached houses in neighbourhoods such as Sarrià or Sant Gervasi, where the extension has to fit the plot and the planning rules.
• Warehouse and workshop conversions: changes of use from industrial premises to homes or to hybrid live-work spaces.
• Project management and site supervision: when there is already a design and what is missing is someone to take it through construction with control of time and cost.

Our work in the city

In Gràcia we renovated a compact apartment that keeps its courtyard, wooden joinery and Catalan vault (PE17), and restored an industrial warehouse for craft workshops, a dance school and its owners’ home (TO39). In Sarrià, on the slopes of Collserola, we extended the ground floor of a three-level house towards the garden (IM10). In the city centre we turned a former craft workshop into a three-level home with a roof terrace (MO23) and gave an Eixample apartment that had been used as an office back its life as a home (CO38).

Permits to renovate in Barcelona

Works in Barcelona are processed under the ORPIMO, the municipal bylaw that regulates how the City Council oversees building works. Broadly, there are three routes:

The exact route is set by the prior consultation, which takes into account the location, the type of work and the building’s heritage protection. For notices with a certificate and for permits, the City Council also asks for the Technical Suitability Report (IIT). And if the works prevent tenants from continuing to use the home, a prior report from the housing services is required.

We explain it in more detail in which permit you need to renovate an apartment in Barcelona.

Protected buildings and old buildings

Much of Eixample, Gràcia and Ciutat Vella is made up of buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many have some level of protection, and almost all have structural particularities: timber or steel beam floors with vaulted infill, load-bearing walls, shared light wells. Before drawing anything, it is worth knowing what can be touched. That reading of the building is part of the preliminary study.

How we start

The first visit is free and commits you to nothing. We come to your apartment or house, listen to what you need and tell you what can be done and which filing lies ahead. Then we give you a fixed fee proposal.