COMMUNICATING VESSELS | Cometa Architects

This 250 m² apartment is located in the heart of Art Nouveau Barcelona. A former office space is now transformed into a innovative custom made apartment for a young couple. The building, offers a rich historic background through its multilayered additions and elements completed at different periods of time. Looking to reconstruct history, all partitions, non- structural elements and plaster elements were removed, searching for the original beautiful brick fabric and the qqulaities of this listed building.

The new open-plan space which runs undisturbed through the sleeping area, the dressing room, the washing area, the kitchen, the library and living area; creates a row of uninterrupted communicating vessels.Every zone( vessel) has its identity and characteristics and they all united by the  microcement floor creates an even lightweight flooring that constrasts the textured brickwork. The electric installations run through the apartment connecting these different zones, creating a second layer below the exposed ceiling The only visible door in the space is a double door, which indicates the threshold between the private and public areas and functions as  energy saver, isolatating one part of the apartment from the other so the two different central air conditioning machines can work seperately.

Light and space predominate in this sequence of activities, organized by multiple elements, such as customer furniture and fixtures, which give identity to each one of the vessels. The enterance furniture such as closet, study desk and then kitchen units and island are free standing in the space. The different ambiences are achieved by the custom designed and unicly made lighting system: the ‘Lighting Carpets’ that ‘warm’ and light each space. Every structure ( ´´carpet´´) carries 3 different types of light. The custom-made lighting offers a better control of the quality & quantity of light by using intergraded LED stripes, which counts up to 85% of energy saving.

Awards

IIDA GLOBAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS, USA 2012

Honorable Mention Award in category “Residential Interiors” 

Team

ARCHITECTS Victor Gonzalez Marti & Faidra Matziaraki

Team: Naraia Pardo

Construction and supervision: TC-Interiors (Victor Gonzalez)

Photographer: Vincente Ortega & Oriol Tarragona

3D Visuals, drawrings, model:  Cometa Architects

Client: Private

Site surface 250²

Project works 2014