The White Retreat

The renovation of this 36 square meters apartment came with a defined brief. The client, a French Art historian and curator, professor at the Sorbonne University, came to us with very clear ideas for his small property. The apartment, located a few steps from the beach of the coastal town of Sitges is completely introverted, facing only an interior courtyard. The lack of views is compensated by silence and light. 

The client envisioned a peaceful, open and essential space, furnished with a few carefully selected objects; contemporary artworks, some books, and his records. In sum, a peaceful place for introspection, flooded with light. An extremely reduced budget asked for simple, inexpensive solutions.

Space is conceived through three different blocks: the bathroom/kitchen block, the living/bedroom one and the third, external, the terrace. The last two are extremely permeable, only divided by a large window and long, oversized louvres on the bedroom side, both existing elements that were preserved. The big opening connects a small terrace, unified with the interiors through the use of the continuous white resin flooring and a blank parasol that provides privacy while diffusing the daylight. Indoor and outdoor are connected as a continuous living space. 
The Quaderna table (Superstudio 1970), a piece our client desired to incorporate since the project started, inspired the tiles that clad bathroom/kitchen block. The white matt 3x3cm tiles reproduce the table’s grid and are the only texture allowed in the whole project. This block is connected with the living/bedroom area through an opening that reveals the tiles that also disguise the sliding door that leads to the toilet. The same texture was also used inside the kitchen unit, creating a continuous spatial sequence, that appears once opened its horizontal book-door.  

The kitchen corner is discreet and hidden behind white doors.