Close your eyes and picture your dream home. What do you see? An airy beach house? A two-story condo with the perfect city view? A big farm-style house with a wrap-around porch?
Whatever you’re imagining, it probably isn’t a dilapidated World War One Era cement factory. When Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill stumbled across this old, forgotten structure in 1973, he saw something different: He saw possibility.
La Fabrica
La Fabrica – the factory – became his new project to turn into his own dream home. Located just outside Barcelona, the old factory had been shut down for years for environmental reasons and was hardly inhabitable. With a little creative vision and a lot of hard work, Ricardo and his team created a space that is as unique as it is beautiful on the inside and out.
What was once a smoke-producing dirty building is now covered with lush greenery and outdoor living spaces.
He has done extensive renovations to create a space inside that is modern and maintains the industrial-chic quality of the building but is still warm and inviting. Not a single room is alike, having each been designed to fulfill a unique purpose.
The home is open, bright, and airy. There are rooms for Bofill and his family to live, relax, and enjoy life. There is also a large studio, where Bofill and his team do much of their work. The exterior of the building is covered by grass, eucalyptus, palm, and olive trees.
A Major Renovation
When Ricardo first discovered La Fabrica, it consisted of 30 silos, a web of underground tunnels that spanned across four kilometers, and several rooms for large equipment and machinery.
With the advice of his team, Ricardo chose which sections were to be kept and which to be rid of using dynamite and jackhammers. Of the original 30, eight silos were kept and cleared of all cement and other debris. This initial process took a year and a half. (2)
A Work in Progress
Though the building has undergone an incredible transformation, Ricardo maintains that, much like his life, will continue to morph and change over time. La Fabrica is always evolving and therefore there will always be something that needs to be updated, changed, or completed.
Unique Homes Around the World
All over the world, architects and visionaries are getting creative with living spaces. Check out these amazingly unique homes from across the globe:
- Airplane House, Miziara, Lebanon
- Heliodome House, Strasbourg, France
- The Stone House, Paraisopolis, São Paulo
- Bohumil Lhota’s house in Velke Hamry, Czech Republic
- Le Palais Bulles, French Riviera
Incredible homes and buildings exist all over the world. Perhaps it’s time for you to re-think your dream house?
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