O-house is located within an 18th Century Baroque city fabric in northern Spain. The fabric has been maintained by the consistent use of narrow terrace house types that have been traditionally used for single family occupancy.
The tightness of the parcel with a width of a mere 4.5m (14feet) as well as the stringent planning guidelines and regulations have necessitated that the division of the house into two separate apartments needed to become an exercise in redefining the old traditional terrace apartment type. The apartments are organized as interlocking triplex units that switch back and forth between the front and back of the parcel. This allows each apartment to occupy all three floors while affording each apartment their own terrace. In the case of O-House, the ill fit between a persistent architectural and urban typology and contemporary modes of living, necessitated a radical rethinking of the relationship between the external envelope of an existing building type governed and the interior sectional organization.