A former pigsty in the historic center of Sasamón, Burgos, is reinhabited by inserting a laminated timber framework inside preserved adobe walls. The project maintains the rural street presence while reorganizing domestic life within a precise secondary structure that intensifies the dialogue between earthen fabric and contemporary wooden construction.
House Within a House Technical Information
- Architects1-7: MADE.V arquitectos
- Location: Sasamón, Burgos, Spain
- Gross Area: 102 m2 | 1,098 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years: 2021 – 2025
- Photographs: © Javier Bravo
We accepted the earthen shell as a given and placed within it a clear timber structure. The distance between both systems is not leftover space but a field for movement, light, and the continued legibility of the rural building.
– Álvaro Moral García
House Within a House Photographs
Rural Shell, Contemporary Life: Working Inside a Historic Envelope
The project retains the adobe façades and ashlar base courses that define the street condition of Sasamón’s historic core. Repair is discreet, avoiding alterations to openings or silhouette. All transformation is concentrated inside, so the building continues to read as part of the rural fabric while accommodating a domestic program that the original agricultural use never intended.
By emptying the interior volume and retaining the perimeter walls as a memory-laden shell, the design establishes a direct conversation between heritage and new occupation. The earthen enclosure remains the climatic and cultural perimeter, while the domestic life is reorganized independently from it. Typological continuity is preserved at the village scale, yet the interior gains spatial clarity suited to contemporary routines and maintenance.
The Inserted Timber Box: A Second Structure for Living
A laminated timber volume is introduced within the shell, partially braced against the existing walls and occupying roughly half of the available height and plan. Two legible systems emerge: the inert, massive envelope and the precise, lightweight insert. The gap between them acts as a calibrated buffer where circulation, visual depth, and daylight are negotiated, creating layered views across and along the plan.
Large sliding and hinged doors, crafted from the same timber as the insert, allow for variable permeability. When aligned, rooms connect in an enfilade that extends sightlines from one end of the volume to the other. When closed, they produce discrete cells that support privacy or thermal zoning. The coexistence of old and new remains visible and didactic, with rough adobe and ashlar in tension with planar wood surfaces and crisp junctions.
Material and Envelope Strategy: Coherence Through Constructive Clarity
The palette is deliberately restrained. Exposed structural timber, continuous one-coat mortar, and a clear resin finish over the radiant slab define the interior. Surfaces register how the building is made rather than masking assemblies, and a consistent mortar inside and out reinforces the reading of a single earthen envelope around a separate wooden life-supporting structure.
A continuous interior insulation layer is applied to the shell and backed by lightweight partitions, providing thermal continuity while allowing the mortar finish to act as the unifying surface. The roof is reconstructed in laminated pine, utilizing a traditional beam-and-rafter scheme that aligns contemporary structural precision with familiar rural geometry. The renewed roof consolidates the envelope’s performance without altering the massing that anchors the building within the village street.
Performance, Craft, and Transferability
Prefabricated timber modules were produced locally, reducing on-site duration and transport. This workflow aligns with regional craft capacities and provides predictable tolerances for inserting a new load-bearing system inside irregular earthen walls. The house-within-a-house approach preserves the historic perimeter while establishing a potentially reversible and structurally independent framework.
Interior insulation in adobe requires careful hygrothermal detailing. Control layers must be continuous at floor, wall, and roof junctions to avoid thermal bridges, and vapor management must prevent condensation within the earthen wall or at interfaces with timber. The radiant slab, paired with a resin finish, offers low thermal resistance and rapid response, but it requires attention to acoustic control and surface durability. Together, these choices show how a clear construction logic can extend the life of the rural fabric while providing contemporary comfort.
House Within a House Plans
House Within a House Image Gallery
About MADE.V arquitectos
MADE.V arquitectos is an architecture studio based in Valladolid, Spain, founded in 2017 by Daniel González, Álvaro Moral, and Eduardo Carazo. Emerging from years of collaboration on competitions and built work, the studio embraces a flexible and contextual approach to design, with a focus on sustainability, energy efficiency, and contemporary reinterpretations of heritage architecture. Their work spans various scales, balancing professional practice with academic involvement at the University of Valladolid, and is especially recognized for integrating new domestic programs within historical urban and rural environments.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Authors: Álvaro Moral García, Daniel González García
- Co-authors: Ana Doyague González, María Esteban Carrasco
- Structural engineers: Medgon
- Contractor: Construcciones Escribano
- Carpentry: Javier Ramos Rodríguez Carpintería de Madera
- Metalwork: Metalbur
- Kitchen design and installation: Cocibur
