Anna and Eugeni Bach Extend a Turn-of-the-Century Village House Near Girona

A 350 sq m village house near Girona now carries five bespoke circular canopies, a circular pergola and a two-storey bookcase, courtesy of Barcelona architects Anna and Eugeni Bach. The pair reworked a turn-of-the-century property in Fonolleres, an upscale village in Spain's north-eastern corner, into what they describe as an evolution of the traditional village house rather than a rupture with it.

The House in Fonolleres sits on a prominent edge-of-village plot, bounded by roads on three sides with a south-facing garden. That garden side took the biggest changes: a full-width extension and veranda, with a large terrace above it. A second extension on the front façade produces a more generous entrance and an internal garage sized for modern cars — a quiet admission that the twentieth century's vehicles have outgrown its architecture.

What did the smaller interventions add?

The detail work is where the house earns its character. The list runs short but dense:

• Five bespoke circular canopies on the terrace
• A new circular pergola covering the outdoor kitchen table
• A triangular notch cut into the floorplan at master bedroom level, forming what the architects call a 'studiolo' — an Italian Renaissance term for a compact study room

That studiolo tucks in behind the bedhead, flanked by the two-storey bookcase. It's a study you'd only find by being told, or by living there long enough.

The Bachs worked alongside colleagues Roger Molas and Nuria Gómez, and the project deliberately reads as something assembled over time, much like neighbouring houses in the village. Each addition stands as a discrete geometric object, unified by a palette of natural materials — plaster, timber and ceramics — chosen, per the architects, to present a warm, common language and earthy palette.

How does the design handle sun and shelter?

Many of the additions exist to widen the range of 'shade and shelter' available to the occupants, making the house liveable year-round. Shade is placed with intent, not spread evenly. Planting on the circular pergola will eventually screen the breakfast table from the morning summer sun, while the built-in barbecue gets its cover at midday. The shallow end of the pool sits shaded by the new covered seating area — one of several quirks that reveal themselves through familiarity rather than on first walkthrough.

Inside, the rooms stay modestly scaled for a house of this size, anchored by straightforward materials and meticulously crafted details. The precision runs from the roof beams to the notched stone anchors that hold the timber columns. Craft, not square metres, does the impressing.

The project shows a path for upgrading heritage-adjacent housing stock without flattening it: add geometrically, in natural materials, and let the old walls keep their dignity while the pergola grows in.