House of Waters by Estudio Huma + José Amorós Martínez & Alberto Amorós Martínez

Located in the heart of Cartagena, Spain, the House of Waters is a profound architectural restoration project by Estudio Huma in collaboration with José Amorós Martínez and Alberto Amorós Martínez. This 1050 m² intervention transforms the historic Casa Dorda, an 18th-century convent originally built for Carmelite nuns, into the innovative headquarters of the local water utility company. The project stands as a poetic reimagining of public infrastructure, where architecture becomes a medium for human connection, post-pandemic healing, and sensory experience.

The design is anchored in the symbolic and material presence of water, both as a literal and metaphoric design element. This restored civic building is envisioned as a “house built with water”—a place where transparency, reflection, flow, and resilience shape spatial and emotional narratives.

Restoration with Purpose: A Heritage Reimagined

The ground floor of the palace, designated as cultural heritage, is carefully restored to reflect the changing needs of civic interaction in a post-COVID society. Rather than a rigid institutional facility, the new headquarters is a welcoming environment, prioritizing citizen-centered service, emotional wellbeing, and architectural empathy. The interiors are organized to foster trust, calm, and openness, turning bureaucracy into a humanized experience.

Material Language of Water

Each material element references a distinct quality of water, translating its essence into physical form:

• Glass symbolizes transparency and fluidity. It defines space through light wells and inner courtyards, creating a luminous and open environment. Used innovatively in furniture and workstations, glass—formed with triple layers and fractured surfaces—evokes the timeless stillness of a suspended water droplet.
• Terrazzo, cast in white cement with bluish pigments and selected aggregates, metaphorically captures water’s resilience and adaptability. Its handcrafted, continuous surface ripples across the flooring, connecting spaces with tactile depth.
• Aluminum represents the reflective properties of water, cladding ceilings, columns, and walls with mirrored panels that multiply light and perception. The result is a kaleidoscopic interior where boundaries dissolve in shimmering reflections.
• Tensioned fabric speaks to the immaterial nature of water—its void, its lightness. Installed seamlessly, it acts as a mirror without joints, amplifying volume and softening architectural mass.
• Waterfalls on the façade bring the metaphor full circle, cascading over street-facing windows and infusing the building with life and movement. These liquid veils transform the external appearance into an ever-changing canvas animated by light and gravity.

Humanized Architecture in a Post-Pandemic World

More than a restoration, the House of Waters is a civic manifesto. It reflects a renewed understanding of public space as an emotional and relational territory. In this transformed convent, heritage meets innovation, and material poetry meets functional necessity—producing a spatial experience that is inclusive, sensory, and meaningful.

This project is a benchmark in adaptive reuse, sustainable urban regeneration, and empathic design, responding to both historical legacy and contemporary societal shifts with elegance and depth.

All Photographs are works of David Frutos