MIAS Architects’ Lady Raval is a striking social housing project in Barcelona’s Raval district that restores a historic structure into a vibrant community driven and culturally rich living space. At the heart of the project is a collaboration with the ceramist Carlos Jiménez Cenamor whose handcrafted ceramic tiles line the walls of the building. These pieces draw inspiration from residents’ cultural heritages and everyday lives, weaving a narrative of collective memory and identity into the design.
Throughout the revitalized building, MIAS remains true to the original structure while reclaiming clarity of form. Redundant rooftop additions and makeshift additions have been removed, resulting in two apartments per floor on the street front and three in the L-shaped wing. Accessibility improvements include retaining dual staircases and adding lifts to both sections, while maintaining the street-level shop to reinforce community engagement. Awarded first prize in the city’s restoration competition, the project reopens a formerly cluttered courtyard as the social and emotional core of the building.
Bringing texture, colour, and narrative into a once-forgotten block, Lady Raval exemplifies how socially conscious restoration can reinvigorate communities.‘The project is both a refurbishment of a historic building in central Barcelona and a tribute to the memory and cultural roots of its inhabitants explains Josep Miàs, of MIAS Architects.
