Do not demolish anything that could be used, do not fall into historicist reconstructions and that the new does not compete with the old. After a rehabilitation following these premises, this modernist palace-style jewel looks splendid. Elements of great heritage value have been recovered and the new distribution and contemporary interior design highlight the Nolla floors, the polychrome ceilings and the walnut carpentry.
The property, from the end of the 19th century and 235 square meters, belonged to a bourgeois family, but in the nineties, like many homes on Passeig de Gràcia, it was transformed into offices. Luckily they did not destroy the heritage elements, they just covered them. The modernist doors were removed, floating parquet was installed on the original flooring, the cornices and rose windows were hidden with false ceilings or distorted with repainting and aluminum took over part of the carpentry. There was no trace of the kitchen or the original layout.
Agnès Blanch, co-founder of the Vilablanch studio, together with Elina Vilá, explains that the priority was to recover the modernist elements of the home and do so from an ecological perspective, restoring everything possible. What was lost was considered lost, instead of resorting to imitations or fake vintage, and expert craftsmen restored the mosaics, polychromes and historic carpentry.
The sensitivity in the restoration, the work of the same team that has also rehabilitated architectural gems such as the Burés house or the Grases house, also in Barcelona, has already earned it the awards for best residential interior design at the Créateurs Design Awards in Paris), the AZ Toronto Awards and the Madrid Interior Design Scale.
The apartment had a strange layout in a typical Eixample home. The distance between the façade and the block patio is less than that established in the Cerdà plan, so that the central corridor runs parallel to the façade and not perpendicular, as is usual. It also does not end in a noble room, but rather runs into a wall. For this reason, the renovation creates a game of illusion by placing a floor-to-ceiling mirror on this wall that doubles the space and reflects the stained glass door at the entrance.
For the new distribution, it was decided to connect all the rooms visually and physically to maximize the entry of light. Doors were moved and a brave bet are the new openings that connect spaces, in the form of linear and orthogonal cuts in the walls, such as the access to the bathrooms and the extension of the kitchen.
“Everything new accompanies the old, it does not compete,” explains the interior designer. For this reason, smooth coverings and neutral tones have been chosen, such as sand color on the walls and where there is a new architectural intervention. The stone tone is reserved for the original carpentry and kitchen furniture, so that all the focus falls on the floors and ceilings. As new materials, walnut wood, continuous microresin and small format ceramics have been chosen. “Walnut provides sobriety and elegance and allows continuity to the pre-existing ornamental wood on the bedroom wainscot. It is used in the new passage area of the hall, in the bathrooms and in the kitchen,” explains Blanch, who set the challenge of making the house comfortable for the couple who lives there all year round.
“Everything new accompanies the old, it does not compete,” explains the interior designer. For this reason, smooth coverings and neutral tones have been chosen, such as sand color on the walls and where there is a new architectural intervention. The stone tone is reserved for the original carpentry and kitchen furniture, so that all the focus falls on the floors and ceilings. As new materials, walnut wood, continuous microresin and small format ceramics have been chosen. “Walnut provides sobriety and elegance and allows continuity to the pre-existing ornamental wood on the bedroom wainscot. It is used in the new passage area of the hall, in the bathrooms and in the kitchen,” says Blanch.
The bathrooms (floors, walls, showers...) and the floors where the Nolla mosaic had disappeared are covered with continuous microresin. In this way, a uniform aesthetic is achieved in all rooms. The small format ceramic creates a discreet geometry that coexists harmoniously with the tesserae.
The installations (lighting, aerothermal, security...) are hidden in the double walls and in the new ceilings of the hallway and wet areas, to avoid visual interference, and the pieces of furniture, supplied by Minim, are few, but with a lot of personality. . To select them, the tones of the original floors and ceilings have been taken into account. The lighting is contemporary, but with small nods to the past. An example of this are the lamps in the hallway, which recall the torches of yesteryear, or the suspension lamp in the living room, inspired by a classic chandelier and which has the same diameter as the rose window under which it hangs, as well as the subtle ring of Viabizzuno that gives light to the bedroom. Elegant and subtle contemporary details that do not compete with the modernist heritage.
