I remember excited when our friend and architect Juan Seara trusted us for the execution of the works of the “Rehabilitation da Casa da Viña”, a building with a special feeling for him and his family. Juan often comments that one of his earliest memories of childhood is the memory of the smell of clusters of grapes put to dry in endless ropes flooding that already ruined space.
With more than a hundred years, and being built as a farmhouse and cellar, it was always a magical place, uninhabited, but incredibly suggestive, with stone walls that already wanted many fortresses, simply to house wine, fruit and some other animal that connects us with a time when priorities were very different.
The intervention stands out for the respect on the existing building. In this way, the opening of passage holes in the ground floor and first floor, the appearance of an interior stairway carved in rock, the execution of an inner core to house services and facilities and the opening of skylights on deck to improve the conditions of daylight. The interior treatment of walls recovers the original limas of the rooms, favoring a certain abstract perception of spaces and intensifying the curious light effects.
As the final set up Juan showed his intention to present this great work to the COAG 2014-2016 awards. Thus, this action led by the team Seara Peleteiro Arquitectos composed by Juan and Berta was presented at the College on the last day of the year 2016.
After surpassing the first preselection in the rehabilitation category, the performance described in these lines arrives as finalist along with four other excellent executions.
The resolution of the candidacies takes place last March in the emblematic Teatro Principal of Ourense. The study Seara Peleteiro arquitectos is awarded the COAG prize in the rehabilitation category. A moment tremendously felt and of great emotion, the tears were intuited in the face of Juan. In an intermission during the night’s enjoyment at the Liceo de Orense, Juan thanked me heartily of our collaboration to get to enjoy that moment and that prize.
Thanks to you Juan for allowing us to participate in this great achievement. Berta and you are an exceptional team and besides being excellent professionals, you are people with a kindness out of the ordinary. It is a great pleasure to have met you and to work with you day by day is a challenge that feeds our eagerness to improve.
