SIN Cottage

Industry

SIN Cottage

La Felguera, Llangréu

Sociedad Ibérica del Nitrógeno was set up in Vega (Langreo) in 1925 for the production of agricultural fertilisers. Near the factory, in the third decade of the 20th century, a detached house was built to serve as accommodation for the engineers of the company.

The large building is located on an elevated area above the factory, taking up a position of dominance over it. It is divided into a basement, a ground floor, a first floor and an attic. It has a built surface area of almost 400 square metres, and the floor plan is L-shaped. The basement housed the service facilities (i.e. coal cellar, warehouse and laundry room). The ground floor was used as the director engineer's accommodation, with an entrance hall, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen, four bedrooms and toilets. The first floor served as a residence for single engineers, maintaining a similar layout to that of the ground floor.

In the 1950s, Julio Galán, the municipal architect of Langreo, undertook a project to renovate the building in order to adapt it for the accommodation of the company's employees. The works were carried out at the same time as the construction of a group of houses for the company's engineers, located in the vicinity of the new plant in Barros.

As a result of the refurbishment, the interior layout of the building is modified to meet the stated needs, but there were also changes made in the façade. New finishes were incorporated: stone veneering in the corners and plaster mouldings that simulate the appearance of wood. These elements, together with the wooden shutters that close part of the bays and the multi-slope roof design with broken gables, give the building a certain post-war mountain regionalist aesthetic, similar to that found in other designs of the architect Julio Galán. 

After several years without being used and with serious conservation deficiencies, the building has been refurbished and adapted as a residential care home, a function it maintains today.

Natalia Tielve García

 

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