Paseo de Gracia Penthouse
Barcelona, Spain
2014
CATEGORY
RESIDENTIAL / COMPLETE RENOVATION
TEAM
COLOMBO AND SERBOLI ARCHITECTURE
SURFACE
200m2 + 102M2 TERRACE
STATUS
COMPLETED
PHOTOGRAPHY
The clients, a Norwegian couple with a very big family of children and grandchildren, commissioned us the property research of an estate in Barcelona to be transformed into a “wow flat”, there second residence.
After weeks of research, we have found these offices that lacked charm but had incredible potential for position, views and the huge, neglected terrace filled with air conditioning machines and raw finishes. They bought the property and entrusted us with its complete transformation.
The brief was for the layout to host four bedrooms and four bathrooms (possibly en-suite), one big living space and to the advantage of the great terrace.
The property had a big limit we had to overcome: low ceilings and big, low beams hanging below them. This implied a difficulty in passing ducts and installations and in how to divide the layout. We decided to distribute the rooms by placing the walls along the existing beams, exposed. We opted to incorporate the beams, into the project and make them part of it.
One of the key points of the project was that the entrance is at one end of the apartment, and the desirable space for the living area (with the greatest views and the curved wall overlooking Paseo de Gracia) is at the other end. The circulation was challenging.
To avoid having to pass through the bedrooms area to reach the big living, we created an exit to the terrace and a day area, and a closed box for the more private night area, with all the bedrooms. This night area box is visually placed below the thick and heavy beams that cross the apartment. Different heights were used to emphasize the feeling of a box below the beams and bring natural light into the corridor.
The property only has windows on one side, being the other side the boundary wall with the next building. The corridor and living areas feature mirrors, designed to fool the eyes and open up spaces and windows on the boundary side too.
The project restores the building’s curved facade by getting rid of old roller shutters that cluttered the facade. This newly discovered curve becomes one of the guidelines of the project. To emphasise it on the inside, a white step covered in white cement is built around the living space, matched on the ceiling with it a curved line of curtains. The curtains pass from inside to outside, in the area of the outside dining table, visually blurring the limit between indoor and outdoor. The same curve motif appears in the slot line drawn on the doors closing the “bedroom box” in the shape of the corridor towards the entrance, and in the rounded corner of the marble kitchen island.
We maximized the incredible views on the city and the boulevard through the new windows that open up completely to unify indoor and outdoor.
Materials and colours are inspired by Paseo de Gracia. This allows to visually connect interiors and exteriors. The aim was to make feel that the apartment is on Paseo de Gracia. The white terrazzo floors bounce the light on the inside and give a solid feel of white stone. The porcelain of bathrooms and terrace deck is chosen in colours reminiscent of the stone building on the outside, as well as the kitchen unit doors.
The details of marble cladding in the kitchen and bathrooms add a feel to the boulevard materials. The grey coloured iron details of the library, kitchen island, windows and railing are inspired by the slate roof of the La Unión y El Fénix building, right in front, and so are the brass features.
“We wanted an apartment with a wow factor and Colombo Architecture found the property and turned into it, for all our big family”
— Wenche
The entrance is raised three steps down you find the hallway. Storage units are hidden behind white panels incorporating all the machines for hot water and air cooling and heating. A seat to take off shoes (a habit of the Norwegian clients), with a square mirror, is nested there. A big sliding door leads to the “bedrooms box”. A wide glazed door opens to enter the great terrace.
The terrace is over one hundred square meters on surface and it embraces the entire apartment while it curves around the building. Its level is higher on the entrance side, from where its whole length can be appreciated. Every bedroom can be opened completely on it and the existing sloping volumes of the facade create more private spaces in front of each room. These volumes are clad in the same material of the deck, in the project’s colour.
The terrace can be lit through two lines of LED, one place hidden in the existing part of the railing; the second on the top part of the facade, underlining the curved shape of the building. An outdoor shower has been placed, for the hottest days of summer.
The upper part of the terrace hosts a laundry area, to wash and dry clothes away from sight, screened by a partition. The outdoor space has been widened in front of the living area, creating a glass box next to the kitchen and in front of the living room. This wider area allows placing comfortably an outdoor dining area. The curtains that follow the curve of the living space on the inside, suddenly appear in outside space, as if they were going through the thick facade pillar; they multiply the chances for screening and adding privacy, while softly swinging in the breeze.
A large living space of 84 square metres opens up behind the wide pivoting door. Its elongated shape terminates in the newly discovered curved shape of the building as it faces the corner of Paseo de Gracia. The space features especially designed storage/bookshelf units that covers almost completely the boundary wall. This capacious custom made furniture has sliding doors, some covered in wicker and others in the mirror with a bronze tone that warms the light. Wicker softens the room, while the mirrors “open” windows and unexpected views, providing the space with sights all around and new perspectives on the city. The library has a black metal tubular structure, detailed with brass feet and bolts, and its thick cylinders bear broad shelves as they cage low units that disguise the air conditioning devices.
A small courtesy bathroom is located close to the living area.
The kitchen occupies a corner of the living space, split on two walls. Two panelled fridges behind doors and the hobs on one. The kitchen hood has been completely clad in white marble, just like all tops and dashboards. On the second wall, the sink is placed strategically under the light well to allow views of the dome of the facing building. The central island completes the kitchen allowing extra storage and creating a curved breakfast table. Next to the sink, a square window opens up and nests a special seat, the perfect place to contemplate the skyline.
The corridor is accessed through big doors at the extremes, a pivoting one on the living side and a sliding towards the entrance. To avoid the space feeling like a tunnel the corridor widens in two points where the entrances to the bedrooms are and two big mirrors visually enlarge the space.
Strip windows hidden on the side of the bedrooms allow natural light to enter the corridor. Indirect LED lights illuminate the ceiling from above the volumes placed on the boundary walls. The same volumes are pierced in their lower part by LED spotlights by Viabizzuno, pointing at the floor. This light source allows to light the corridor without interfering with the bedrooms at night.
Entrance to each of four bedrooms is through floor to ceiling pivoting doors. Three of the four rooms are en-suite, by will of the client. The fourth is the master bedroom that has a special bathroom making the most of one of the sloped terrace volumes in which a large masonry bathtub has been placed, with double shower-heads and and views on the Fenix building dome across the street, through its light-well.
