Lucas y Hernández-Gil conducts "architectural acupuncture" on 18th-century home in Spain

Architecture practice Lucas y Hernández-Gil has carefully injected a centuries-old Spanish home with new rooms and features so as not to disturb its original character.

Casa Puerto is located in El Puerto de Santa María, a town in southwest Spain known for its pristine beaches, sherry wineries and abundance of historic palaces.

The home belongs to an Austrian couple and their two daughters, who tasked Lucas y Hernández-Gil with getting the three-storey home into a more liveable state.

The practice soon realised that some areas of the house had been far better conserved than others and decided that, instead of a complete overhaul, a renovation would be carried out in parts.

"By focusing more on the less qualified areas and keeping the others almost untouched, it has been possible to revitalise the whole without losing the original charm, so the new pieces have been configured as boxes or large pieces of furniture," the practice explained.

"The trace of the centuries and the contemporary performance coexist in a collage of times and textures, through an exercise of architectural acupuncture."

This can be seen on the ground floor, where a bathroom was constructed inside a boxy wooden volume that's set away from the home's vaulted ceiling.

In the kitchen, simple updates were made with surfaces brightened by white paint and clementine-orange tiles, laid behind the sink to form a backsplash.

Lucas y Hernández-Gil also created a pink marble-lined pool in the rear courtyard.

This is accessed via a room dominated by a large curved bench clad with blue and yellow tiles. The space was designed to offer a modern take on an apodyterium, the changing rooms once seen in ancient Roman bathhouses.

More blue tiles were applied to doorways, stairs and other points of connection in the home.

"The house has a wide program with many rooms where the transitions are important," the practice explained. "These thresholds have been tiled in blue tile in a play of colour and reflections that connect the memory of the house with the sea."

Another kitchen was created on the first floor, allowing this level of the home to function as a separate apartment if the owners are hosting multiple guests.

The design here is slightly more playful in tone. The extractor hood, for example, is hidden behind a bright-red circular disk while a glazed opening in the floor provides views of the pool below.

In one of the bedrooms, another wooden box was erected to accommodate en-suite facilities.

Casa Puerto's renovation is still ongoing. In the next phase of work, Lucas y Hernández-Gil will transform the third floor into an artist's residence.

This isn't the only period home that the practice has worked on; it recently renovated the interiors of a 1970s bungalow on the outskirts of Madrid.

The project also involved the addition of a multi-use greenhouse that can function as a workspace, a guest bedroom or gym.

The photography is by José Hevia. 

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