Sant Gervasi Penthouse: A Penthouse Renovation with A New Warm and Bright Atmosphere

Román Izquierdo Bouldstridge designs this penthouse with full of wood and nature to create a new warm and bright atmosphere. Sant Gervasi Penthouse is a 2020 renovation project of a penthouse located in the Sant Gervasi district of Barcelona, Spain. With 78 m², the design of this penthouse reinterpreting the elements of the traditional Japanese house known as Kamoi and Ranma.

Design

This penthouse has a terrace with a natural light that comes from the block inner courtyard. All original partition walls are demolished to achieve a natural light bath for the interior space. The load-bearing wall is the only preserved element that establishes the day and night areas and also divides the apartment longitudinally.

Kamoi and Ranma

The innovative partition system can give a succession of rooms that connected to each other. These partitions are new, based on the traditional Japanese construction aesthetic and elements. Ranma is a panel in the upper wall between the ceiling and the Kamoi while Kamoi is a timber lintel above the openings that supports the panels of a sliding door called Fusuma.

The modern reinterpretation of glass-ranma brings light to enter the rooms, providing a greater sensation of amplitude. The abstract composition can generate the harmonious combination of mobile panels and opaque white surfaces with transparencies, flexible apertures. This composition is formed by sliding doors and wooden frames.

Rooms

There are a ten meters long visual from the entrance to the outside terrace that crosses the interior space, creating a succession of three rooms with different degree of relation and privacy to the exterior area. The terrace is designed as an exterior room links to the courtyard while the living-dining room is is an indoor terrace with nature and warm light. The kitchen has an interior space that connects to the covered terrace.

The wooden doors and windows contrast with the white abstract envelope. The continuous horizontal plane is formed by the warmth of oak wood flooring where furniture and plants can bring the architecture to life. The reinforced concrete pillars are the slender sculptural elements that put the new with the old, the abstract with the concrete, and the light with the heavy in contrast.

Sant Gervasi Penthouse Gallery

Photographer: Adrià Goula