Dual Skin by Susanna Cots

Susanna Cots changes the traditional concept of “home” through a design based on Nature, light and visual confort. It’s the new home of a family who wanted an open space to live a life full of joy and communication.

Architect: Susanna Cots
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Year: 2018
Size: 171m2 + 24m2 terraza
Photography: Susanna Cots | Mauricio Fuertes

From the architect: Certain decisions force you to begin from zero. Not being afraid to build again. What’s more: with the desire and need to see a new future grow from its roots. The family that transformed this new Susanna Cots project into a home was convinced that the family came first. They wanted to open spaces and focus on them, their connections and their way of life.

The first criterion was to open the space to the exterior and natural lighting. The interior architect totally dispensed with dark zones and devised a distribution that favoured family nuclei, especially in the daytime zone, an extensive, diaphanous area that integrates, in the same interior and exterior space, the kitchen, the living room and the terrace.

The use of black was one of the owners’ requirements and the colour has been integrated into the kitchen furnishings, the bathrooms and the living room, seeking the contrast and reflections between matte and gloss.

One of the unique features of the interior architecture is the “dual skin" concept, a design approach that creates two functions for each space or furnishing. On the one hand, there is a small lounge between the kitchen and the dining room that invites the family to join the conversation while cooking is in progress since it is connected to the dining table, but it can also be a cosy nook for casual talk and makes an ideal anteroom to the meal.

The second design duality in the project is the sofa, conceived as double-sided unit to act either as a support for the dining room table or as a refuge for the living room for those who seek comfort free from the annoyance of the television.

Following the duality route the terrace - designed to integrate with the interior - runs parallel to the living room and the dining room. The sliding doors and the outside fireplace, the benches and the table into which they can transform all contribute to the interconnection between the interior and exterior.

Susanna Cots has designed all the family rooms as suites to foster intimacy and create space for each personality. The young people’s suites were created by emphasising the play between the tones and textures of parquet and the panels that comprise the custom bedroom furnishings.

These symmetrical rooms are joined by a generous shower zone although each part has its own toilet. The entire design is integrated into a single space in the individual male suite. The master suite shower is designed as a tunnel with separate entrance and exit from both the bedroom itself and from the handbasin and toilet area, creating a connection that integrates it into the suite.

The designer’s organic, minimalistic hallmark that created a form with sculptural impact to welcome guests to the home is found in the courtesy bathroom.

Susanna Cots has created a glass cube in the centre of the house to integrate the family office, both for the adults and the little ones. This area can be concealed behind curtains to avoid losing the achieved natural light when greater privacy is required.

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