This Barcelona-based studio seems to amaze us more and more with every new project. They are doing a great job at seizing opportunities of every apartment they design.
We love the simple designer’s tricks they use to give the apartment exactly what it needs. With every look at their interiors, you can discover a new amazing detail you’ve never noticed before.
For example, look at this photo. At first, you notice this translucent mezzanine wall with a black framework Then this soffit of the mezzanine with vaulted terracotta tiles that is covering the ceiling. And then this amazing perforated staircase.
These details are noticeable because of the calm white surrounding. That’s the genius of the simple white wall – it is a clear canvas with an ability to enhance anything that’s in front of it.
Once the existing ceiling was taken off, architects discovered an attic with a gabled roof which allowed them to transform a single storey apartment into a two-storey apartment – with a mezzanine floor as a perfect bedroom.
Placed in the middle of the apartment, the bedroom is moved away from the building’s façade. RAS solved this problem beautifully with a translucent sliding divider that doesn’t just let natural light into the bedroom, but also allows ventilation of the room. Both are extremely important for a healthy environment.
Actually, it’s like everything that could potentially interrupt distribution of light and air from one side of the apartment to the other is translucent and/or perforated.
Look at the stairs.
If you read our post about stairs design, you might remember we’re infatuated with stairs that are also something else, especially when placed in the middle of the apartment. But stairs as one part of the kitchen was beyond our wildest dreams. Together with kitchen wall elements, stairs seem like an elegant sculpture. And base cabinets are deliberately white and dematerialized. Detached from the upper part of the kitchen – even though they’re right next to it – as they are something completely different. What a lovely gesture!
The mezzanine generated two scales within the apartment. The lower one, just below the mezzanine, where the entrance space, the bathroom, and the open kitchen area are placed, and the higher rooms on the each side of the mezzanine – living room and dining room.
When we wrote about room dividers, we mentioned how rooms don’t always have to be divided with walls. Now, we are showing you rooms that are divided without dividers. The difference in height, in certain situations, works just as good as a physical divider, because you feel the barrier – even though it isn’t really there.
One way to achieve this is with different floor levels, but placing few steps between kitchen and dining room could easily end up with you hating yourself.
Also, come on you guys, think about babies and grandparents. Home has to be user-friendly. Creating higher spaces by increasing their height instead of lowering their floor is a way to go. (unless, of course, you’re building a house on a sloping terrain). The rules here are quite simple: main rooms should be higher than utility rooms and larger rooms should also be higher.
So yes, from functional layout organization to the color palette and affordable materials, RÄS studio amazes us with each and every project. They don’t over-design. They don’t deal with unimportant. They just make the best out of every apartment they design.
Studio: RÄS
Designed by: Clàudia Raurell, Joan Astallé, Marc Peiró
Location: Barri de Gràcia, Barcelona
Floor Area 71.85m²
Year: 2016
Photographer: © Adrià Goula
Collaborators: Saint Gobain – glass panel, Mur & López – carpentry, Primcolor – paint, Uz – iron
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