Sarquella
Torres

Sarquella Torres is an architecture studio based in Banyoles, founded by Pau Sarquella and Carmen Torres.

The practice works across a wide range of scales and formats, from furniture and industrial design to housing, public buildings, and exhibitions. Projects often emerge from limited means and specific constraints, responding to social needs and environmental pressures through direct and carefully considered solutions. Rather than pursuing a fixed formal language, the studio is interested in how architecture is shaped by context, use, and time, allowing space for adaptation, precision, and a certain degree of lightness. The studio’s work has been widely awarded, published, and exhibited.

Alongside their professional practice, both founders are actively involved in architectural education. Pau is Associate Professor of Architectural Design at EPSARQ–UdG and ETSALS–URL, and Carmen is Associate Professor of Architectural Design at ETSAV–UPC, where her teaching and research activities have received academic recognition. Both have also taught at INDA, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

Beyond the studio, Pau co-founded Persiana Barcelona in 2014, a research-driven design initiative focused on reimagining the traditional roller blind. The product, has since been incorporated into a wide range of architectural projects.

Pau Sarquella and Carmen Torres are co-curators of the UIA World Congress of Architects Barcelona 2026, held under the theme Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition.

 

Current and past team members:

Pau Sarquella
Carmen Torres
Luís Villamil
Marta Farinha
Alicia Marco
Joana Plana
Jerome Lorente
Guillem Quer
Jorge Fernández
Pimpakarn Rattanathuawat
Vitchapol Taerattanachai
Suthida Lertpanichphan

Sarquella Torres

hola@sarquellatorres.com
@sarquella.torres

Carrer de la Canal 25
17920 Banyoles

Grid / List
Year
Project
Location
Category
2026
Ersilia Scientific Research Residency
Porqueres
Residential
2026
Sant Martirià 89
Banyoles
Residential
2026
Rodes Public Playground
Banyoles
Public Space
2025
Banyoles
Public Space
2025
Banyoles
Public Building
2025
Can Biel
Mieres
Residential
2024
Barcelona
Ephemeral
2024
Olot
Ephemeral
2024
Banyoles
Residential
2023
Banyoles
Exhibition
2023
Europan 17
Lochau
Public Building
2023
Jaume I
Girona
Residential
2022
El millor disseny de l’any
Barcelona
Exhibition
2022
Cannes / Munich
Ephemeral
2022
Pa Negre
Girona
Retail
2021
Cinc Cèntims
Banyoles
Exhibition
2018
Cuinats Jotri
Girona
Ephemeral
2018
Dum Yai
Public Building
2018
INDA Parade
Bangkok
Ephemeral
2017
El guapo d’en Narcís
Girona
Ephemeral
2017
Palafrugell
Public Building
2017
Carns Vila
Girona
Ephemeral
2016
Patis Cinètics
Palma de Mallorca
Ephemeral
2016
Girona
Exhibition
2014
Persiana Barcelona
Barcelona
Ephemeral
2013
Habitatge sota una coberta
Celrà
Residential
2013
Celrà
Retail
2013
Girona
Ephemeral
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia

Status: Built
Client: Lluèrnia. Festival del foc i de la llum
Collaborators: Gina Font, Berta Mata, Mariona Palom, Laia Ling Sánchez, Luís Villamil
Photos: Joan Guillamat

Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia

Llar is a microclimate in the cold nights of Olot.

Llar is a Miesian pillar that rises 15 meters and is stabilized by tension with large basalt rocks. The tensioned cables simultaneously support the insulating and reflective canopy to preserve the heat.

Llar is primitive architecture that preserves fire as the first huts did. It is both structure and envelope.

Llar is a “escó”: a space within a space, preserving thermal qualities and intimacy.

Llar is a phenomenological environment of heat, light, shadow, and crackling.

Llar is a chimney — cheminée – chemin de fumée — that unfolds, exposing its interior, where soot appears as a witness to the rising smoke.

Llar is a thermodynamic combustion process that heats by refraction and expels smoke by convection.

Llar marks the Plaça Major with a cross, a central meeting point where the boundaries between the domestic and urban worlds dissolve.

The discovery of fire marked a change in the material conditions of life, providing warmth and protection, but also transforming social dynamics. Fire brought humans together, fostering interaction, the development of language, and the creation of communities. This allowed for the establishment of permanent settlements and the emergence of the first architectural structures: shelters that not only protected but also organized social space.

The Masies, vernacular architectures, show this link between fire, community, comfort, and architecture through their hearths. These hearths are not just furniture; they are architectural spaces within the domestic space, designed to guarantee warmth by the fire and create an intimate atmosphere. Once again, fire becomes the center of life, reminding us of its foundational importance.

Llar is an ephemeral installation for Lluèrnia, the festival of fire and light in Olot. A large community chimney rises above the façades of the Plaça Major in Olot, creating a microclimate that invites people to appropriate public space as if it were a domestic living room, generating a space for dialogue and reflection.

Llar. Festival Lluèrnia

Llar. Festival Lluèrnia

Awards: FAD (Shortlisted), BEAU XVII (Shortlisted), CSCAE Awards (Shortlisted), AJAC (First Prize)

Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Close
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia

Status: Built
Client: Lluèrnia. Festival del foc i de la llum
Collaborators: Gina Font, Berta Mata, Mariona Palom, Laia Ling Sánchez, Luís Villamil
Photos: Joan Guillamat

Awards: FAD (Shortlisted), BEAU XVII (Shortlisted), CSCAE Awards (Shortlisted), AJAC (First Prize)

Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia
Llar. Festival Lluèrnia

Llar is a microclimate in the cold nights of Olot.

Llar is a Miesian pillar that rises 15 meters and is stabilized by tension with large basalt rocks. The tensioned cables simultaneously support the insulating and reflective canopy to preserve the heat.

Llar is primitive architecture that preserves fire as the first huts did. It is both structure and envelope.

Llar is a “escó”: a space within a space, preserving thermal qualities and intimacy.

Llar is a phenomenological environment of heat, light, shadow, and crackling.

Llar is a chimney — cheminée – chemin de fumée — that unfolds, exposing its interior, where soot appears as a witness to the rising smoke.

Llar is a thermodynamic combustion process that heats by refraction and expels smoke by convection.

Llar marks the Plaça Major with a cross, a central meeting point where the boundaries between the domestic and urban worlds dissolve.

The discovery of fire marked a change in the material conditions of life, providing warmth and protection, but also transforming social dynamics. Fire brought humans together, fostering interaction, the development of language, and the creation of communities. This allowed for the establishment of permanent settlements and the emergence of the first architectural structures: shelters that not only protected but also organized social space.

The Masies, vernacular architectures, show this link between fire, community, comfort, and architecture through their hearths. These hearths are not just furniture; they are architectural spaces within the domestic space, designed to guarantee warmth by the fire and create an intimate atmosphere. Once again, fire becomes the center of life, reminding us of its foundational importance.

Llar is an ephemeral installation for Lluèrnia, the festival of fire and light in Olot. A large community chimney rises above the façades of the Plaça Major in Olot, creating a microclimate that invites people to appropriate public space as if it were a domestic living room, generating a space for dialogue and reflection.

Llar. Festival Lluèrnia

Close