Apartment FONT6 a Wunderkammer. A quiet retreat filled with emotionally charged artifacts a stone's throw from the Sagrada Familia

The 1914 building is an example of a Catalan modernist building in Barcelona's Eixample district. The FONT6 apartment, purchased in a state of disrepair, had period elements, although most of them irreversibly compromised. The original layout consisted of a series of partitions, in full modernist style, dividing the apartment into six rooms. The gallery overlooking the interior patio had previously been enclosed with PVC windows; the original windows were lost before the purchase

The challenge of the joint redevelopment project by Colombo and Serboli Architecture and Margherita Serboli Arquitectura resulted in the willingness to keep the period elements that could be saved, without giving up an apartment with a contemporary character. The two rooms adjacent to the entrance had original elements in good condition, especially the floors and doors. In the rest of the apartment, the impossibility of preserving the original floors and the location of the bathrooms and kitchen that were no longer functional led to the decision to completely remove the remaining walls, making it impossible to preserve the floors

The focus of the project then becomes, having emptied the apartment, the insertion of a blue lacquered volume, clad in fluted wood, which completely redefines the spaces around it. The blue box encloses within it the most intimate heart of the apartment: the bathroom, which becomes a precious relaxation area. The entrance to the "Holy of Holies" is hidden between the doors of the storage compartments that follow each other over the entire surface of the volume, serving at the entrance as a closet, in the bedroom as a 4-season closet and in the living room as a pantry

The blue box internally has a micro-cement finish in a very warm shade of pink that contrasts with the cooler exterior tones. In the living area, a large island that houses the cooking area is designed as a separate piece of the box and also serves as a convenient table for more intimate dinners or breakfasts. The refined furniture design was curated by CaSA  by mixing luxury elements with vintage pieces

In terms of finishes, the entire apartment is treated as a single box, with neutral elements and colors highlighting the presence of the blue volume; where it was not possible to keep the original floor, a continuous ivory micro-cement was used. All suspended ceilings were removed; Catalan vaults were recovered and painted warm white. Contrasting color traits are the coral-painted beams, which trace the location of the ancient partitions, and the same hue is echoed on other furnishings.
Punctual elements of more precious materials such as brass and Portobello marble are mixed with more basic elements and combined to generate a feeling of affordable luxury, not ostentatious but to be sought in everyday details