Local Barcelona-based Cometa Architects has transformed a 162-square-meter apartment called Éventail, incorporating a distinctive layout that resembles a traditional handheld ribbed fan. The renovation project features a custom-made central staircase and strategically placed circular cutouts that showcase the building's historic brick ceiling, creating a space filled with tactile details and visual contrasts.
The apartment's design concept centers around the metaphor of an éventail, French for hand fan, which opens in sequence. "The project unfolds around the metaphor of the éventail – a hand fan that opens in sequence," explained Fairda Matziaraki, partner at Cometa Architects. "The apartment's new layout radiates from an imagined central core that acts as a spatial hinge, organizing circulation, light, and program around it."
Cometa Architects completely reimagined the existing interior layout, which Matziaraki described as "a succession of misaligned doors following a slightly curved path along the facade." The studio placed a striking white staircase at the apartment's central core, suspended from vertical rods. Above this central feature, an automated skylight opens up to provide access to a generous 135-square-meter terrace.
The design team made a deliberate choice to celebrate the contrast between their minimalist interior design approach and the building's original raw brick walls. They achieved this through carefully planned ceiling cutouts that reveal the historic red-brick structure above. "We wanted the ceiling to breathe – to gain depth and gravity, becoming a topography rather than a surface," Matziaraki explained.
The architects emphasized their unique approach to working with Barcelona's architectural heritage. "In Barcelona, we often work with the expressive textures of ceilings, but in this case, we didn't want to simply reveal or restore; we wanted to create new dialogues and three-dimensional tensions where the ceiling becomes a structural force, shaping directions and perspectives in space," Matziaraki continued.
As a design-and-build studio, Cometa Architects sourced all materials for the project directly from their showroom, including wooden floors, microcement, metal paint, lacquered wood, and porcelain countertops. The team maintained a uniformly white color palette throughout the interior, with white details spread across the entire space to create visual cohesion.
"We maintained a soft off-white palette to let textures resonate and light move freely across surfaces, creating a balance between precision, warmth, and craft," the studio explained. However, they also restored the apartment's traditional tiles, which provide a warm contrast against the predominantly white walls and create visual interest through their historic character.
Among the distinctive decorative elements are sculptural white pebbles belonging to the apartment's owner. Cometa Architects complemented these with custom-made lights created by Greek company Delight. "The round pebble shape is a form we love for its fragility, especially in glass or ceramic," Matziaraki noted. "We love contrasting it with rough backdrops – imagine how it could be squeezed and pulled by gravity, and the sound of it when it crushes! It's architecturally 'satisfactory'."
The Éventail project represents the latest in a series of innovative Barcelona residential renovations that have gained international attention. Other recent Barcelona projects featured in design publications include a social housing block designed to "challenge traditional gender roles" and a home featuring a fully glazed corner offering panoramic sea views. The project photography was captured by José Hevia, showcasing the interplay between the modern interventions and historic architectural elements throughout the transformed space.
