b-ing Architecture
Yök casa + Cultura
Urban ecotourism
Barcelona’s 19th Century bourgeoisie enabled one of Spain’s most spectacular exercises in property speculation with the construction of the Eixample between 1860 and 1900. The resulting apartments with their spacious layouts and generous floor to ceiling heights were fitted out with the emblematic hydraulic floor tiling, ornate plaster cornices and mouldings, etched glazing and carved joinery so typical of the Modernisme style in Catalonia.
One such apartment provides the setting for a very contemporary entrepreneurial project that riffs off this 19th Century space. Yök Casa + Cultura is a hybrid proposal, an eco B&B combined with a local cultural offering, the former consisting of three separate apartments which have been sensitively inserted into the original apartment envelope. The latter is accommodated within a penthouse floor built during the 1970s when several floors were added to the original 19th C building. This floor accommodates the B&B reception as well as providing a space for the diverse cultural activities aimed at both locals and visitors alike.
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View of one of the living room areas with panels of the original wallpaper
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Kitchen cabinets made from recycled timber pallets
The recently opened B&B reflects the philosophy of eco-designer Petz Scholtus who together with María José Rodriguez Marañís (hotel management expert) has created not just a very beautiful collection of spaces where tourists can spend the night but a manifesto of how Barcelona can re-invent its tourist sector working within the parameters of sustainable design. Everything about this project has been painstakingly researched and carefully thought through; energy and water consumption, furniture, graphics and communication. At its core the project is a celebration of what the city is, was and can be in the future. For a city which is obsessed with design it is only fitting that all the furniture and installations have been sourced locally; from the fitted kitchens, to the beds, the lamps and sanitary ware – it’s all 100% Barcelona and features products from Santa&Cole, Casa Constante, AOO and Roca amongst others. In fact all these items are on sale, effectively turning this B&B into a Barcelona design showroom. Even its logo (created by Katie Barcelona) oozes local colour, it recreates the typography that Dali invented for ChupaChups, at one time Spain’s most successfully performing international company.
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All of the furniture and lighting are original works of Barcelona based designers
As an exercise in refurbishment Yök is handled adeptly, all the original features have been retained, where partitions divide ceiling mouldings great efforts have been made to ensure their preservation. The original sliding timber shutters of the facade have been lovingly restored, quirky interior details have been retained and panels of original wall paper are left exposed. The contemporary sits comfortably with the old, just another layer superimposed over the already existing layers of history.
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Where possible all original fittings and finishes have been preserved
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The original arartment measuring 250 sq.m. has been divided into 3 self-contained units
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View of a double bedroom with ensuite
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Room with two single beds
- Yök Casa + Cultura
- C/ Trafalgar, 39 8° 2ª
- Barcelona 08010
- www.helloyok.com