A Symphonic Overture

Essential places, passageways are nevertheless often afterthoughts.

Annie Block -- Interior Design, 5/1/2012 2:00:00 AM

Custom doors in lacquered iron at both street entrances.

Essential places, passageways are nevertheless often afterthoughts. Unless you're talking about the one traversing the lobby at Edifi cio Beethoven, a 1970's offi ce building in Barcelona, Spain, to link two street entrances. This corridor is part of the 1,900-square-foot public space redesigned by Archit3tum.

When principal René Mateo fi rst walked into the lobby, he was met with a decorative fl ashback: avocado marble walls, a surfeit of steel and glass. He ushered in more contemporary aesthetics in the guise of a concept he calls "modular origami," in other words establishing visual continuity through recurring angles. A bronze-colored aluminum-resin composite, formed into panels that resemble origami unfolded but only partially smoothed, covers a sidewall. Across the ceiling, stretched PVC forms a giant black-and-white mosaic. Replacing the two run-of-the-mill street entrances, white-lacquered iron latticework doors pivot open. Just passing through.

Archit3tum redesigned a lobby passageway at Edificio Beethoven in Barcelona, Spain, to feature paneling of aluminum-resin composite, a PVC stretched ceiling system, and glazed porcelain floor tile.