ARKET

ARKET Passeig de Gràcia: the brand’s first store in Spain

We were responsible for the design of ARKET’s first flagship store in Spain, at number 26 Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona. This retail architecture project involved renovating and adapting the basement, ground floor and main floor of a Modernista building in a protected setting within the Eixample. The new retail use, covering 1,084.86 m², has been integrated without altering any of the building’s protected features.

A building with a history

In 1872, Domènec Batet i Nadal built the Casa Vilomara on this plot, a Neo-Mudéjar building that formed an ensemble with the neighbouring Casa Pere Llibre. In 1912 it was replaced by the current building, designed by Bonaventura and Joaquim Bassegoda. The building has a ground floor, five upper floors and a basement. Its restrained Modernisme shows in the floral reliefs and in the sinuous profile of the balconies and the crowning parapet. The building has façades onto the boulevard, onto the Passatge de Maria Canals and onto the courtyard at the heart of the block. It lies within the protected setting of the building at Passeig de Gràcia 24 bis, which is listed as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest (BCIL) with protection level B.

Fitting the store to the building

We started from a clear premise: the store adapts to the building, not the other way round. On the stone façade, the new steel and glass enclosures sit within the original arches. On the passage side, the original wrought-iron joinery and grilles have been preserved. Inside, a double-height entrance hall houses the new staircase, a piece of vertical slats that connects the floors alongside the original cast-iron columns. The ground and main floors are given over to retail, with a gallery and a terrace opening onto the inner courtyard. The basement houses the customer toilets, staff areas and plant rooms.

Building services that respect the heritage

The moulded ceilings are protected, so we designed every building service specifically to leave them untouched. The lighting hangs from an intermediate plane suspended on tension cables. This plane lights the merchandise and, at the same time, highlights the ornamentation of the ceilings. The ventilation ducts terminate beneath the door openings, without piercing walls or cutting through mouldings. The cast-iron structure and the wrought ironwork remain exposed thanks to a dedicated fire-protection treatment. As a result, the store meets all current regulations while the building keeps its identity intact.