In Torre Baro, a Barcelona neighborhood shaped by decades of self-built housing, LABLANCA has converted an oddly shaped garage into a compact guest studio designed for temporary stays.

The design starts with what was already there. The original garage had two clear constraints that became the organizing logic for the renovation: a recess cut into the hillside that leaves an irregular perimeter, and a raised foundation block that sits proud of the floor. Instead of fighting those conditions, the plan assigns them new jobs.

A lightweight kitchen unit sits on the raised foundation, while the bathroom is tucked into the recessed zone at the rear. With that bathroom volume narrowing the route through the main room, circulation turns into a deliberate threshold. Social space stays up front, while sleeping moves to a secondary, elongated volume with double-height proportions and overhead light.

Material choices keep the project straightforward and legible. Concrete masonry units form new partitions and built-in elements, including the bathroom volume, storage, and even the bed. Left exposed with no added finish, the CMU gives the interior a raw, construction-forward identity, and it reinforces the connection between how the space is built and how it works.

For mason contractors, it is a useful reminder that exposed CMU is both structure and finish. Layout, coursing, corners, openings, and penetrations all show, so coordination matters early. The project also calls out a common red flag in garage and hillside conversions: where walls meet earth, moisture becomes a real design driver, especially in bathrooms.

Small-format red porcelain stoneware tile provides the counterpoint, wrapping the raised base and the recessed wall where irregular surfaces would make larger units harder to land cleanly.

Read the full, original article from Archisearch here.