Paseo San Juan Apartment

Breathtaking originality and tradition

The renovation of an apartment in a historic building in central Barcelona: the Paseo San Juan Apartment interprets the city’s kaleidoscopic spirit by offering a contemporary rereading of the solidity and wealth of its tradition.

Gaudí and the Sagrada Familia are without a doubt the first points of reference to come to mind when discussing Barcelona and its architecture, but the Catalan capital’s heritage also has much more to offer. Every corner of the city acquires a unique appeal from an unparalleled, unique mingling of tradition – such as the pure Gothic of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi – with experimental contemporary projects by names such as Nouvel, Herzog & de Meuron, Meier, Miralles, Calatrava and Chipperfield.

Rethinking with respect

Barcelona, and to be precise a royal estate on the central Passeig de Sant Joan, is the location of the Paseo San Juan Apartment, a modernist home recently renovated to a project by YLAB Arquitectos. The brief presented by the owners, an Australian couple in love with the city, was both stimulating and challenging: to restore to use an apartment in a very bad state of repair but listed under heritage regulations, conserving its structure and features of historic interest such as the Nolla mosaic flooring and the ceilings but adding all the comforts required by a contemporary lifestyle.

The apartment was subdivided into two main areas on either side of the entrance hall: the communal areas for guests occupied the larger section of the property, with the private areas forming a little flat on the smaller side. Both parts were redesigned, creating new layouts to meet the owners’ requirements with regard to entertaining guests while still conserving their privacy. The design concept was inspired by the variety of colour of the mosaic flooring, different in each room. The larger rooms were painted in different shades to match the flooring and bespoke furniture was finished with a semi-satin lacquer in the same colour. Skirting boards and indoor and outdoor woodwork in a very dark brown provide a linking characteristic, running right through the apartment from end to end. This feature even enters and surrounds the smallest rooms, and combines with sophisticated artificial lighting and the use of reflective materials to transform them into fascinating, luminous interiors.

Location Barcellona
Year 2023
Design Studio YLAB Architects
Applications Cladding & Flooring, Furnishing & Design
Project Type Private House

Attention to detail

Great care was taken over the surfaces, so the choice of Laminam large slabs for the claddings of the kitchen and bathroom should be no surprise. In fact, the I Naturali collection in Calacatta Michelangelo shade with Soft Touch finish was used both for the kitchen countertop and backsplash and for the washbasin and shower enclosure. Calacatta Michelangelo is the surface with distinctive fine veining ranging in colour from light grey to taupe. Its luxurious aesthetic makes it a popular choice for interior furnishing, especially for flooring and wall cladding, kitchen worktops, bathroom countertops, or sinks and washbasins. The Soft Touch finish chosen for the Paseo San Juan Apartment is an evolution of the polished finish and provides a smooth but non-reflective surface which offers an extremely soft sensation to the touch.

Like all Laminam slabs, Calacatta Michelangelo delivers outstanding technical performance: its surfaces are tough and durable, quick and easy to clean and suitable for contact with foods. They repel the proliferation of fungus and mould and their resistance to damp makes them suitable for use in locations in frequent contact with water and steam, such as bathrooms and kitchens.

In the Paseo San Juan Apartment, Laminam large slabs help to define an aesthetic that strikes a fine balance between conserving existing characteristics and creating a contemporary design carefully styled down to the tiniest detail. The result is a home with a tranquil, tasteful, elegant ambience.

The apartment was presented to the public in the Ylab’s Latest event at Barcelona Design Week 2023, furnished in partnership with top design brands and art galleries, and was viewed by sector professionals and connoisseurs.