Renovation of an old apartment with tons of gold and a spiral staircase,
The studio ” Raúl Sánchez Architects” in Spain has renovated an apartment dating back to the late 19th century.
Where golden colors and patterns and a white central spiral staircase were used,
in the Borne district of Barcelona, Spain
Design Features
The four-storey building, located in Barcelona’s Born district, has been reborn with gold detailing to give the home a raw and handcrafted look.
The house has been called House BSP20, and the interior spaces,
enriched with highly balanced materials, almost take the owners back into the building’s history.
The studio was commissioned to renovate this building for a client who wanted to spend their short stay in the live workspace while visiting Barcelona.
Although project preparation started in 2013, construction of the project did not start over the next seven years due to organizational disputes and changes in usage.
Renovation of an old apartment with tons of gold and a spiral staircase
The property’s original condition turned into ruins during this time, with floor slabs very damaged,
staircases weak, and parts of it already demolished.
On the other hand, the architects had to adapt the building to current regulations,
which made it impossible to reuse the interior space from the start.
The studio decided to demolish the entire building, retaining only the facades, partition walls,
and roof slab (not the stair tower), and reconstruct the stair tower section using the staircase.
The construction process, slow and complex, at least allowed decisions to be made,
as the essence of the property was revealed with the demolitions.
Once all the floor slabs are demolished, the building can be seen as a long,
thin prism made up of walls of a completely heterogeneous composition,
of all kinds of bricks and stones arranged without clear arrangement or composition.
The architects took the idea of leaving all these walls exposed and created a new design.
As these four walls are more than 15 meters high, they are a museum of the building’s history,
and the elements of its construction, such as the arches, lintels, stairs, and beams,
such as the remains of mortar, furnishings, and cladding, are all maintained.
Design shape
The studio added 3 new floors supported by new beams between the dividing walls.
These floors do not touch either of the two facades towards the main façade,
and are separated from a glass panel.
The spiral staircase, which became the protagonist of the project, is located in the direction of the interior façade,
appearing as a four-storey void that unifies the entire interior and shows the astonishing height of such a slender building.
Thus, the project is determined, staying to determine the uses of each floor and solve technical problems.
On the ground floor, there is a kitchen, dining room, and other functions, such as the living room and dressing room.
With the exception of kitchen furniture and bathroom equipment, nothing else occupies the floors,
so their uses can be reversed over time or need, as well as transforming floors into workspaces.
The presence of fittings, by excluding the presence of grooves in walls or small wells from the very beginning,
plays a special and relevant role in the interior.
There are 7 stainless steel cylinders, running the entire height of the building,
and performing all electrical, ventilation, plumbing and extraction facilities.
Renovation of an old apartment with tons of gold and a spiral staircase
As well as sewage, air conditioning and communications within 6 cylinders,
leaving one empty for future needs.
These cylinders are not hidden and pass through the building through the furniture and floors,
and the rest of the fixtures are always visible.
It is also never compact, accentuating the roughness of the masonry walls on which it is located,
liberating it from new bondage.
Design materials
The architects were aware of the fact that the space should resemble a home in their choice of materials.
Against the primitive expression of the existing walls, the architects followed an improvement in the new elements.
Thus, the kitchen is made up of a crystalline, shiny, mirrored copper piece of furniture and a white marble top.
The bathroom fixtures are covered in lightly cream-painted wood panels, with black and copper details,
while the floor’s “headboards” are covered in delicate white cement; hydraulic mosaic.
As noted by the studio, micro-cement and oak floors add warmth and color to the interior,
and painted wood ceilings include logs and grids to tailor these needs.
Renovation of an old apartment with tons of gold and a spiral staircase
The entire structure of the spiral staircase is painted white, appearing as a certain physical abstraction.
The staircase is designed in the form of a free-standing cylinder that extends the entire height of the building without ever touching its walls.
This thus provides Pyrenees views aided by the heterogeneity of the walls and the diversity of views.
Conversely, all the details on the existing walls directly and the material of the window frames are made of direct mortar.
The preframes are unhidden, and the structural elements of the relationships are left unpolished.
A skylight at the top of the stairs provides a beautiful gradation of light down the lowest layers towards the façade,
where glass panels bounce light between floors and provide constantly changing reflections.
This upper window allows the façade to be admired at its full height from the inside,
just as it does in the space of a staircase.
The architects also rehabilitated the main façade based on the strict regulations of the Heritage Department,
returning it to an image of the past that never existed.
Just at the entrance door, they were free to create a façade that reproduces the 3D design of the classic hydraulic mosaic,
(used on the ground floor and much loved by the client).
With an exploding view of rhombuses and triangles ending in 3 types of aluminum that conceals the door (recognizable only by the lock) and strips the entrance.
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