Image Courtesy of Colombo and Serboli Architecture

Tyche Apartment by  Colombo and Serboli Architecture

The property occupies an art nouveau building of the Eixample district of Barcelona and was fully renovated by CaSA and Margherita Serboli to become the holiday apartment for an Italian family. The original layout wasted considerable space and was poorly orientated. Its longitudinal distribution, forced by the transversal bearing walls, resulted in many densely separated small spaces, spared along a long corridor that isolated the two ends of the apartment. The project is the result of a collaboration between CaSA and Architect Margherita Serboli.

Image Courtesy of Colombo and Serboli Architecture

The natural light – as usual a fundamental project theme – brought the architects to the complete renovation of the existing arrangement of spaces. The three bearing walls that previously compressed the fractured layout have been transformed into transversal axes around which the space is organized into different areas. The first of these axes corresponds to the hall, and it organizes the continuous space between the wide living space and the open kitchen that now occupies the area that was previously a bedroom.

Image Courtesy of Colombo and Serboli Architecture

A widest day area has been created by opening part of the old corridor to the kitchen-living area, and by doing so allowing the light to flood in, through the dense pattern of treetops. The block that embodies the two minor bedrooms grows around the second axe. This light pink coloured volume separates the day area from the area ad the inner end of the property, which became the suite. This master bedroom, previously occupied by kitchen and a studio, forms an open space of almost 20sqm, which includes the bathroom that is separated by a change of floor level.

Image Courtesy of Colombo and Serboli Architecture

This solution allows making the most of the light coming from the great original window frame that occupies almost all the wall facing the inner courtyard. The palette of materials and colours creates a dialogue that’s always different, punctuated by the two volumes that define the project, one in pink paint, the other clad in wood. A Mediterranean-inspired atmosphere dominates the entire floor with a combination of colours partly suggested by original features – such as the amaranth wooden window frames of the facade – and dominated by white and pastel tones.

Image Courtesy of Colombo and Serboli Architecture

The desire to maintain an essential language through light colours, simple shapes and rough materials such as natural wood, responds to the need to highlight the floor and original elements. The secondary bedrooms block is shaped as a pink box whose volume is inserted with its tonal load between the white spaces of kitchen/ hallway and a second body, of natural wood. The colour white prevails inside the pink block and it’s pink becomes the colour of the original window frames. The exterior green colour of the same windows enters the room through the window shades becoming a further element of colour.

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