Architect Transforms Concrete Building

An article popped into my inbox that caught my attention this morning:

Architect transforms rundown cement factory into his home and working space

 

I figured that should be an interesting read. Understatement!

This isn’t your everyday ‘architects live in a huge concrete building’ story.

This is the inspiring home and workplace of Ricardo Bofill of Barcelona, Spain. He isn’t often a household name, outside of design enthusiasts, but in our world he’s been a ‘starchitect’ for quite a while. For movie buffs, one of his early famous buildings was in both the art house favorite, Brazil, and the more recent blockbuster Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 (imagine caustic black goo filling the courtyard).

This is a housing project outside of Paris that is used in two dystopian movies. Two movies that I like a lot.

I’m familiar with the firm’s work from the glossy magazines but I had no idea that he lived and worked in such a unique BAB!

I think they could use a pipe light over this table, though.

It has the worn concrete that we love about our place, but the interesting volumes (but much less clutter) of the Mercer Museum. Actually, much less clutter than our place, too.

I wasn’t sure how we could display our art work upstairs since there are few areas of solid walls to hang stuff on. Easels! Lots of Easels!

I forwarded the article to Tom, whose response was:

“oh that is so awesome that it f***king HURTS to look at it!!!”

He sent back some more articles and images he found. These images are going into our inspiration files.

To see more, search Google Images for La Fabrica Barcelona (or click on that link). The exterior roof gardens are other worldly.