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Hotel Ohla
Hotel Ohla
49, Via Laietana, Barcelona, Spain
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Other Projects by Alonso Balaguer y Arquitectos Asociados
Hotel Ohla
49, Via Laietana, Barcelona, Spain
HOTEL OHLA *****, Via Laietana no49, Barcelona.
The building of Heribert Salas’ (1926 – 2011) house in Via Laietana 49, Barcelona in 1926
could never be considered a finished project and the clash of what was then considered a
modern building within the weave of Ciutat Vella left wounds that have taken over 80
years to heal.
Meanwhile, this strategic corner has been used for many different things... a department
store that gave its name to the building (the first department store in Spain, Casa
Vilardell), a police station... and now a hotel.
The arrival of the proposal to turn this emblematic building in Barcelona into a hotel was
welcomed in the office as an excellent opportunity to finish off the junction between Via
and Calle Comtal, which was left unsolved in its day, as an opaque, six-floor dividing
façade that required more decisive work rather than a mere face lift.
Its use as a 21st century hotel has little in common with a 20th century housing block and
the outlining of a complicated programme, together with the need to ensure a minimum
number of parking spaces, required the demolition of the existing construction, preserving
the bare essential: the façade.
Thus, thanks to a supporting structure that left the façade suspended in the air for one
year, we were able to provide the unit with 3 underground floors: one for convention halls
and hotel services, one for parking and a third for water tanks.
The remaining floors are structured around the main stairway, which preserves the layout
of the original building and leaves room for a restaurant and a bar on the ground floor,
the reception and a restaurant on the mezzanine floor and 72 rooms – 12 per floor (4 of
which are junior suites) – on floors 1 to 6.
The almost circular shape of the floor means that all rooms are different, not only in their
layout but also in their views, which range from the Palau de la Música, the port at the
end of Via Laietana and the small streets of Ciutat Vella.
The roof is divided by a loggia covered by a dome housing a large suite that can be
divided into 2 rooms. On the side looking down onto Calle Comtal is an impressive patio
with exceptional views and a spectacular pool close on two sides by glass walls. A fifth
façade provides stunning 360o views of the city of Barcelona.
However, perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the project is the dialogue that
has been established between its two façades: the over-elaborate and clean neoclassic
façade on Via Laietana and that of the simple, dark new floor on the rear side of Calle
Comtal.
This new façade, together with the one on the inside of the block that can be seen from
the street, draws a clean and tidy geometry that, with windows of vertical proportions,
blot out a synchronised confusion and link the vernacular architecture of Calle Comtal with
the classicism of Via Laietana.
The opportunity to create a reference point in the city by combining art and architecture,
seeking a rhetoric beyond that of a mere hotel and continuing along the lines of the
existing and the contemporary, led us to contact Frederic Amat and invite him to become
involved, providing the construction with a power way beyond that of its architecture.
Along these lines, the wall of eyes is an exercise in acupuncture that escapes its initial
scope to combine the two façades, providing the construction with expressive,
monumental and contemporary force linked to the traditional references of the city in
both resources and material.
Combining architecture and art offers a product that is the complete opposite of the
“placeless” concept. The Hotel Ohla could only be located in Barcelona, by the
Mediterranean and, during times of crisis marked by a lack of references, the Ohla stands
firm, vindicating our city as a world reference. The “Barcelona” model in all its splendour:
respect for the past but innovation in the end product.
This contrast between opposites is transferred to the inside of the building. Black and
white, harsh and soft, dark and light contrast each other in the layout of the rooms and
vertically in the restaurant...
The entire inside of the building is treated as simply as possible, with the sole support of
the quality of the materials used in the finishes, with very discreet lighting and using the
minimum amount of elements possible.
The use of light to separate areas in the bathrooms of the rooms, between the two
restaurants and in the lobbies must be noted.
In the rooms, the contrast is seen in various forms: on one hand the softness and warmth
of the bedroom area contrasts with the darkness and harshness of the bathrooms. The
difference in the materials and the light means that no physical separation is required
between these two areas.
In the restaurants, however, the separation is provided by a sophisticated light filter
based on a stainless steel netting covered with LEDs that illuminates the mezzanine
restaurant in such a way that you can see everything that is happening around you
without being seen; powerful surroundings for a restaurant of such a high level of cuisine
(SAÜC).
All of this completes a 5-year project based on the complicity of the owner (Aqua Hotels)
that, right from the start, has shared the vision of a project seeking implications beyond
the concept of a hotel and that, in harsh times, supports the balance between quality,
state-of-the-art and respect for the past as its keys to the future.
Barcelona, March 2011
The building of Heribert Salas’ (1926 – 2011) house in Via Laietana 49, Barcelona in 1926
could never be considered a finished project and the clash of what was then considered a
modern building within the weave of Ciutat Vella left wounds that have taken over 80
years to heal.
Meanwhile, this strategic corner has been used for many different things... a department
store that gave its name to the building (the first department store in Spain, Casa
Vilardell), a police station... and now a hotel.
The arrival of the proposal to turn this emblematic building in Barcelona into a hotel was
welcomed in the office as an excellent opportunity to finish off the junction between Via
and Calle Comtal, which was left unsolved in its day, as an opaque, six-floor dividing
façade that required more decisive work rather than a mere face lift.
Its use as a 21st century hotel has little in common with a 20th century housing block and
the outlining of a complicated programme, together with the need to ensure a minimum
number of parking spaces, required the demolition of the existing construction, preserving
the bare essential: the façade.
Thus, thanks to a supporting structure that left the façade suspended in the air for one
year, we were able to provide the unit with 3 underground floors: one for convention halls
and hotel services, one for parking and a third for water tanks.
The remaining floors are structured around the main stairway, which preserves the layout
of the original building and leaves room for a restaurant and a bar on the ground floor,
the reception and a restaurant on the mezzanine floor and 72 rooms – 12 per floor (4 of
which are junior suites) – on floors 1 to 6.
The almost circular shape of the floor means that all rooms are different, not only in their
layout but also in their views, which range from the Palau de la Música, the port at the
end of Via Laietana and the small streets of Ciutat Vella.
The roof is divided by a loggia covered by a dome housing a large suite that can be
divided into 2 rooms. On the side looking down onto Calle Comtal is an impressive patio
with exceptional views and a spectacular pool close on two sides by glass walls. A fifth
façade provides stunning 360o views of the city of Barcelona.
However, perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the project is the dialogue that
has been established between its two façades: the over-elaborate and clean neoclassic
façade on Via Laietana and that of the simple, dark new floor on the rear side of Calle
Comtal.
This new façade, together with the one on the inside of the block that can be seen from
the street, draws a clean and tidy geometry that, with windows of vertical proportions,
blot out a synchronised confusion and link the vernacular architecture of Calle Comtal with
the classicism of Via Laietana.
The opportunity to create a reference point in the city by combining art and architecture,
seeking a rhetoric beyond that of a mere hotel and continuing along the lines of the
existing and the contemporary, led us to contact Frederic Amat and invite him to become
involved, providing the construction with a power way beyond that of its architecture.
Along these lines, the wall of eyes is an exercise in acupuncture that escapes its initial
scope to combine the two façades, providing the construction with expressive,
monumental and contemporary force linked to the traditional references of the city in
both resources and material.
Combining architecture and art offers a product that is the complete opposite of the
“placeless” concept. The Hotel Ohla could only be located in Barcelona, by the
Mediterranean and, during times of crisis marked by a lack of references, the Ohla stands
firm, vindicating our city as a world reference. The “Barcelona” model in all its splendour:
respect for the past but innovation in the end product.
This contrast between opposites is transferred to the inside of the building. Black and
white, harsh and soft, dark and light contrast each other in the layout of the rooms and
vertically in the restaurant...
The entire inside of the building is treated as simply as possible, with the sole support of
the quality of the materials used in the finishes, with very discreet lighting and using the
minimum amount of elements possible.
The use of light to separate areas in the bathrooms of the rooms, between the two
restaurants and in the lobbies must be noted.
In the rooms, the contrast is seen in various forms: on one hand the softness and warmth
of the bedroom area contrasts with the darkness and harshness of the bathrooms. The
difference in the materials and the light means that no physical separation is required
between these two areas.
In the restaurants, however, the separation is provided by a sophisticated light filter
based on a stainless steel netting covered with LEDs that illuminates the mezzanine
restaurant in such a way that you can see everything that is happening around you
without being seen; powerful surroundings for a restaurant of such a high level of cuisine
(SAÜC).
All of this completes a 5-year project based on the complicity of the owner (Aqua Hotels)
that, right from the start, has shared the vision of a project seeking implications beyond
the concept of a hotel and that, in harsh times, supports the balance between quality,
state-of-the-art and respect for the past as its keys to the future.
Barcelona, March 2011
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