Until the 18th century, Gràcia neighborhood was a rural town articulated by “masías” (typical Catalonian rural housing), religious convents, and high-society manor houses. From the 19th century, with the second industrial revolution and the destruction of Barcelona’s medieval walls, the neighborhood became key to the urbanistic expansion of the city. All ancient cultivation fields became terrain to construct and install new industries. Paseo de Gràcia, being the bourgeoisie’s favorite Sunday walk path, soon propelled Vila de Gràcia to be permanently annexed to Barcelona in the year 1897.
An old village theatre built in the late nineteenth century and converted over time first in a barn and then in a toilet paper warehouse is now transformed to operate as a live/work space. “The Theatre” (name that has maintained the building despite the change in its uses) is located in the geographical heart of Barcelona at the buoyant tech district 22 @ in the Poblenou neighbourhood. A few meters away from Diagonal Avenue and the new Central Park of the Glorias.
The apartment, located in a building in Raval, just a few metres from La Rambla, is an achievement of space. As you walk in, it opens up from the main façade to the rear terrace, which looks over the Boqueria market. Initially, we were surprised to see that the apartment occupied the entire floor of the building, with a contrast of large and small obsolete spaces and proportionally limited connection to the enormous, uneven terrace.
And ever since elevators came into scene, apartments on the first floor ceased to be regarded as the main, most sought after, housing units on the building. Masters no longer had to worry about their knee joints and decided instead to distance themselves from the Street noise in order to gain privileged views over the city. From then on, attics, formerly destined to accommodate home servants and employees, started to receive the same decorative attention and to gain space grandeur in order to host the everyday lives of the owners and their frequent and distinguished guests. Ever since then, we can find attics with merits and a true call to be considered the true main level of the property, and from that moment on we can say it is indeed possible, very now and then, to have it all and the best of both worlds.
Architects: Egue y Seta With direct involvement of: Daniel Pérez, Felipe Araujo, Gaia Trotta, Covadonga Díaz, Ángel Turiño, Youlin Franco, Sarah Salas, Eva González and Álvaro Sánchez.
The project was born from the idea to link the different spaces of the house by means of a unifying element. This concept was materialized employing a suspended ceiling that communicated both ends of the apartment and overlaid the existing elements and the new intervention.
The apartment, slightly under fifty square meters, was originally subdivided into smaller rooms that configured a poorly lighted and ventilated space. The rooms were originally organized by a wide corridor that allowed both segregated and combined domestic activities.
THE ROOM presented us with the opportunity to develop a workspace in line with present-day needs. A flexible, multipurpose environment that could take on different structures as required by the user.
A large space was needed to host occasional workshops, a room with an adaptable capacity and direct access from the street, two smaller boxes to be used as offices or small meeting rooms and an office-dining room linking the rest area with the patio.
This project presents the renovation of an office for the company Agua KMZERO, a sustainable water brand based on the concepts of quality, ecology, economy and proximity.
The office is located in a building of 1965 in the industrial district of Poblenou, Barcelona.
With the intention that the atmosphere of their offices took part of their own identity the goal was to rep-resent their values in the interior design project. On the one hand, we sought to work with recyclable materials (ecology), on the other hand, we took advantage of all the elements of the original industrial architecture (proximity / economy) and finally, we used glass as an allegory of water and to enhance and contrast with the rest of materials (quality).
It’s important to us to convey the neighbourhood’s history in the interior design. This 112m2 apartment is in one of the many labyrinths like streets from the born neighbourhood in Barcelona. In these streets strong contrasts exist between the building shadows and the bright sun light. The contrast continues at night with subtle lighting in the small streets and theatrical lighting in the plazas and larger avenues. Inside the flat we wanted to feel the same contrast, in the materials, lights and colours. We decided to change atmosphere while changing spaces, from corridors to the open space, from room to bathroom, going further into intimate and calm spaces, the light changes, the atmosphere transformations. The perfect contrast between old & new materials, between dark & light, between colours & White. The new construction is functional with intelligent built in storage, modern elements were made to measure for this Project to contrast with the old bricks & stone walls and ancient wooden doors, which we rediscovered doing an almost archaeological excavation, scratching on walls and old paint, a meticulous work but definitely worth it.
The primary sign that the concept of work and the way of conceptualising office spaces has changed, is probably embodied in the appearance of the freelancer: An individualist concept of work that depends on collaboration. They are the people who no longer work inside an office space for a big corporation, but rather inside a café, on some faraway island, or inside a coworking: a space acknowledging that there is a need for people to be around others, even while working.
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