Cage Gallery + Coworking

Barcelona, Spain

Photo © Adrià Goula

Drawing © sbA

Architects: sandy brunner Architecture

Location: Barcelona, Spain
Year: 2022
Team: Sandy Brunner, Maria Puebla Escola

The goal of the project was the conversion of a dark ground-floor warehouse, located in a rarely frequented street in the Old Town of Barcelona, into a gallery, a coworking and a meeting point in which people from different fields could collaborate and exchange ideas.

It is based on the search for light, taking advantage of the maximum surface area to achieve a flexible and generous space, while at the same time integrating the traces of the past that keeps alive the historical memory of the place.

Releasing the existing walls, converted into the historical periphery, a space of great height is discovered. To take advantage of it, a new attic is placed like a piece of furniture made out of steel painted in white, separated from the existing stone walls keeping the history of the place.

An arch that gave access to an interior tower becomes the entrance to the vertical nucleus of the staircase. The intense yellow of the the handrail accompanies through the darkness of the tower to the attic.

New openings are arranged in the interior façade of the attic towards the courtyard, now converted into a terrace and a place of relaxation, while also allows natural light to get into the former dark interior.

The contrast between the new industrialized structures and the imperfections and irregularity of the existing envelope creates an unfinished atmosphere awaiting for future transformations of the space.