An Artful Home at the Heart of Barcelona’s Creative Scene Doubles as a Gallery Space

March 04, 2023

An Artful Home at the Heart of Barcelona’s Creative Scene Doubles as a Gallery Space

Previously a warehouse, its white interiors make art pop while a central wood core conceals domestic functions and delineates private areas from public ones.

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Project Details:

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Architect: Mesura / @mesura.eu

Art Gallery: VASTO / @vasto_gallery

Footprint: 5,748 square feet

Builder: Conic Estudi

From the Architect: "An intersection between domesticity and art, Vasto Gallery recognizes its client’s way of life by utilizing spatial indetermination and the plurality of uses to blur the limits of the domestic sphere. It transforms an industrial studio into a comfortable home while maintaining some of its original vagueness, allowing the apartment to double as a house and an art gallery.

"It stands in Poblenou, an old neighborhood in Barcelona whose proximity to the sea and low land prices made the area an attractive location for factories and industries, which led the site to consolidate over time as the city’s industrial district. However, during the de-industrialization of the ’60s and ’70s, the neighborhood experienced the inverse, leaving vacant spaces that are now being adapted to new uses as the area re-emerges as Barcelona’s latest creative hub.

"The flat has a single generous and diaphanous space with windows on three of its walls and an open plan only interrupted by two rows of steel columns. Its peculiar ceiling reproduces the local construction techniques developed during the 19th century by Catalan architect Joan Torras, who introduced steel beams complemented by flat ceramic to compensate for structural forces through its vaulted shape.

"Acknowledging that the strengths of the apartment lie in its light, spacious atmosphere and distinctive structure, the project follows a simple premise: reducing the spatial divisions to a minimum. Thus, the floor plan is split in two: a private and public area, with the latter acting as a living room and exhibition space. To emphasize lightness and fluidity, the division of these areas is achieved by a service core detached from walls and ceiling. Built in wood, this central volume stands out not as a wall but as a freestanding element that allows one to perceive the space as a whole.

"The living area is a flexible room with only two fixed pieces: a 26-foot-long stainless-steel kitchen counter and a long, off-white table that runs along the opposite wall. The rest of the room spans uninterrupted, allowing the exhibition space to adopt different configurations.

"Even though smaller in size and different in its use, the private room follows the boundless premise of the project too: the bedroom and bathroom are merged into a single unit, where the bed, bathtub, and sink become loose elements within the room, while a shower, walk-in-closet, and toilet are placed at the core.

"The intervention encompasses two distinct actions. One is the restoration and enhancement of the existing qualities of the space through construction work, and the other involves the design of the interior elements of the house that offer new capacities.

"This way, the project’s interior design is reinterpreted as a constellation of unique objects detached from the apartment’s limits. These elements contrast with the white-washed walls and light-wood furnishing to emerge as accents of color and form, weaving a cohesive and contemporary identity throughout the project that draws the focus to the pieces scattered throughout the space."