Total Ellipse: Barceló Raval

Alejandro Saralegui -- Interior Design, 6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

firm:jordi galí & estudi
site: barcelona, spain

El Raval has long been the lively but seedy cultural center of Barcelona, Spain. In the last decade, however, the city launched an urban-renewal project, the Barceló Raval hotel being an anchor. The idea of an elliptical tower standing among the area's converted tenement buildings proved inspirational to Jordi Galí & Estudi, which handled the interiors. "The contrast between the neighborhood and hotel is so surreal," Jordi Galí says. "I took that as a jumping-off point, not designing anything too serious."

His lobby is a riot of color, shapes, and sizes. Like stalactites, throngs of white foam cylinders in different lengths hang from the ceiling. The wall surrounding the reception niche is upholstered in a grid pattern. Adding to the surreal playfulness, reception's life-size black horse, actually a floor lamp, wears a shade for a hat, and the lounge's smaller pig figure serves as a base for a round tabletop.

The real fun is in the lobby lounge, on the opposite side of the service core. This oval form, wrapped in silvery resin, is carved out to house a banquette with tufted fuchsia velvet upholstery. Communal tables with old-fashioned turned legs and boomerang-shape tops are illuminated by lamps with oversize black-and-white damask-printed shades.

In the upstairs hallways, the same damask print lines the ceiling. The 186 guest rooms feature open bathing areas in white Corian "like sculpture," Galí says. Tying in with the lobby, LEDs in the white headboards are fuchsia. The thought of coloring peoples' dreams would surely please the ultimate Catalan surrealist, Salvador Dalí.

Photography by Jordi Miralles.

FROM FRONT MOROSO: CHAIRS (LOUNGE). IM PERSONAL: CUSTOM LAMPS. LUCEPLAN: PENDANT FIXTURES. 3FORM: WALL COVERING. MOOOI: STOOLS, PIG TABLE (LOUNGE), LAMPS (RECEPTION). MARCASAL: BANQUETTE FABRIC (LOUNGE), WALL COVERING (RECEPTION). INTERFACEFLOR: CARPET (HALL). TRES TINTAS: CUSTOM CEILING COVERING. CERAMICA FLAMINIA: SINK (GUEST ROOM). QUADRO: SINK FITTINGS. MAGIS: DESK CHAIR. NEOCERÁMICA: FLOOR TILE. THROUGHOUT DUPONT: SOLID-SURFACING. CMV ARQUITECTOS: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. LED-Á-PORTER: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. FINSA ARQUITECTURA: CURTAIN-WALL CONTRACTOR.