Extraordinary Residential Projects by Arquitectura-G

Refurbishment of a flat on the Casanova Street.

Apartment on Girona Street, Barcelona.

With their trademark timber battened skylight ceilings and use of platforms to differentiate spaces, Arquitectura-G are one Spain’s hottest young architectural practices. It doesn’t take much to pick their characteristic design elements – sunken lounges, custom made beds, cubic volumes beautifully articulate into multifunctional areas that are brought about by dividing the spaces vertically or horizontally.

Founded by four architects in 2006 – Jonathan Arnabat, JordiAyala-Bril, Igor Urdampilleta and Aitor Fuentes – the practice has been racking up interior and architectural awards all over Europe.

This architectural studio also teaches a wonderful program called Writing-G where work of all members of Arquitectura-G and outstanding architects externally are recognised and discussed.

Apartment on Reig I Bonet Street, Barcelona.

Apartment on Reig I Bonet Street, Barcelona // If you can’t get enough of white interiors, then you are going to love this place. Situated on the top floor of a small building this 55m2 apartment is found in the district of Gracia in Barcelona. Deliciously high ceilings, 3.9m to be precise, the white palette in conjunction with the raised platforms and bespoke joinery offers a continuous visual flow. It’s the rooftop glazing with the existing wooden beams that makes this project sing. Introduced as a solution to create a relationship with the sky, it acts as another ‘window’, as well as flooding light into the space and frankly, just making it look stunning.

House in Gracia, Barcelona.

House in Gracia, Barcelona // Keeping with the white theme, this project again makes use of the pure colour to expand what is only a 80m2 house. The white used both in the finish for the walls, the terrazzo flooring and the pristine white kitchen and bathrooms is pivotal in taking a small space and giving the appearance of vastness. But it is the white soaring cylindrical body that contains the spiral staircase, which is the hero of this design. It’s been cut in such away that it allows access from different levels and it links the three floors visually together. The cherry timber stair treads are striking against the endless sea of white. But raise your head upwards and you’ll see the underside of the stairs are white, a reverse set of stairs looking down at you, somewhat like an Escher print come to life. As you make your way up the cherry cladded stairs, they seamlessly extend into the flooring on the uppermost level.

Jonndo shoe store in Madrid.

Jonndo shoe store in Madrid // If you thought that cork had it’s best days behind it, you’d be wrong. This shoe store in Madrid is decked from head to toe it. But this is no 1980’s kitchen floor, horror job! Instead it’s a seamless flow of colour and texture, highlighted by the pristine white walls to add contrast and visual relief. The architects wanted to give this corridor style space, a passage way between the external mall and the interior of ‘an apple’ a feeling of continuity, a flow. But they also wanted to give the store unity between the bench, stands and exhibition spaces. From the cork covered floors, to the cylindrical changing rooms, down to the door knobs on the drawers we read this flow in both material and shapes.

Refurbishment of two flats on Padilla Street, Barcelona.

Refurbishment of two flats on Padilla Street, Barcelona // Here again we see their love of geometrical shapes. The bold cylindrical bodies painted jet black and russet orange sit imposingly on the white floors. As though they have been superimposed from another image they appear to take up all the air in the room. Unapologetically large and imposing they contain the bathrooms and cleansing areas. The interior of these cylinders are no less commanding. Here again we see Arquitctura G’s love of geometrical shapes and lines. A cube within a cylinder. The cuboid interior inside these cylinders is almost like a question inside a riddle. The clean square edges painted in the same bold colours house the clothes hanging racks made of zig zagging steel tubing. It is as always, the simple, clean lines and punching colours that they are renowned for.

Apartment on Lluís Companys Street, Barcelona.

Apartment on Lluís Companys Street, Barcelona // The renovation of this attic in Lluis Companys street in Barcelona has all the classic Arquitctura G strongholds. Their delicious love of the curves, their shelving system used to divided spaces, the russet red/orange flooring and fabrics shine against the white walls. Here again their custom made lounges and their beautiful cherrywood flooring. Sigh. Love.

Apartment on Mariano Cubí Street, Barcelona.

Apartment on Mariano Cubí Street, Barcelona // Beautifully light and a buttery, the main living spaces area combination of old world Barcelona, in preserving the original ornate floor tiles and new world design, appropriated by the architect’s simple statements of colour and form. Buttery cream sits alongside dark charcoal greys. White arched walls give way to dove grey doors. And then there’s the playful moment where one set of French doors is painted partially white, partially dove grey, like a mime out performing on La Rambla, it’s a trick of the eye, designed to delightful amuse and confuse.