In this property in Barcelona, built in the 70s only a derelict façade was left. "A foreign couple was looking for a pied-à-terre in the capital that was different from traditional buildings, with hydraulic flooring and beamed ceilings," says interior designer Juan Moreno López-Calull of John Brown Projects. When the owners found this duplex of 300-square-metres, which was once the headquarters of an architecture studio, they contacted Moreno. “They asked me to completely modernise it so that there would be a strong contrast with the outside. Together with Re-Build, who was in charge of the technical part, we pulled down the building and completely rebuilt it, relocating the staircase in the new 80-square-metre, double-height room,” avers Moreno.
The result is a large living space, which includes a dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, and a terrace. “They wanted to have a feeling of continuous space, which was achieved with the sculptural black iron staircase and large windows; now all the rooms look outside,” says the designer. To update the home, he chose Travertine and Carrara marble, metal, natural oak and leather in which the two favourite tones of John Brown Projects dominate—black and white. “It is an elegant, symmetrical, suggestive, masculine and open house,” he offers.
For the interior design, they opted for totem furniture from the 20th century, among which pieces by Oscar Niemeyer, Charlotte Perriand, Gerrit T. Rietveld, Hans J. Wegner and Serge Mouille stand out. The home is a canvas for the owners' art collection—oil paintings by Reuben Beren James, Struan Teague and Albert Riera Galceran, photographs by Jordi Bernadó, and sculpture by Berta Blanca T. Moreno conceives his interiors as a work of synthesis between art and design, merging them but maintaining the uniqueness of each one.
This article first appeared in AD Spain
