Apartment Refurbishment in Gràcia, Barcelona
Area: 120 m2
The history and charm of this 100 years old apartment attracted the owners that wished to renovate it without losing the atmosphere of the existing elements. The design focused on modernizing the space through small and very specific interventions that respected the character of the old and let the existing elements to have the protagonist role.
The geometry of the existing floor plan that corresponds to the quite common dwelling typology of Barcelona’s Ensanche, with load-bearing walls parallel to the facade and the rooms positioned to each side of a long corridor, has been respected as a whole. The bedrooms remained facing towards the street facade, the kitchen in the core of the apartment and the living room facing the block´s patio.
In order to visually reduce the length of the long internal corridor and to offer a bigger space for the kitchen, two partition walls were removed while the structural walls were kept intact. The colourful hydraulic floor and the ceiling with its rosettes and mouldings were in good enough condition to be restored. The exposed brick wall and the use of the oak wood, as a detail in the kitchen, add warmth and contrast with the neutral white of the walls and ceilings.