NEVER SEEN . MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2024
Bonell+Dòriga
Renovation of an apartment in carrer Bertran, 2016
Located in a hilly area in the city of Barcelona, this is an apartment defined by its situation below the street level. In spite of its perfectly rectangular shape in floor plan, there is an imbalance between the two windowed façades: one towards a small inner courtyard, which also serves as the access; the other, in direct contact with a private garden and views of the city.
The project aims to turn all of its rooms towards the well-lit exterior, towards the garden, in an effort to provide them with natural light and attractive views. At the same time, it needs to account for existing structural and installation elements that could not be modified. A series of made-to-measure furniture pieces circumvent those elements and function as flexible perimeters of space. Its winding geometry directs the inhabitant through the apartment. The large window towards the garden is likewise transformed into a hybrid piece between enclosure and furniture, between limit and place of life.
This project was never built. Recently, a model of it has been part of several exhibitions in Spain, and this has given us the opportunity to look back into the project and reflect on what could have been.
Bonell+Dòriga is an architecture studio founded by Laura Bonell and Daniel López-Dòriga in 2014 in Barcelona, where they work in projects at various scales: from the design of pieces of furniture and small private commissions to larger-scale public projects. They combine practice with theory, and started “A Series of Rooms” in 2016 as an extensive and multidisciplinary research on the architecture of the domestic. In 2019 they received the Début Award of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale.
