A place of my own: A post-industrial idea space

Hard to miss, the house has a bright yellow, double-width front door that stretches up to a semi-circular window on the second storey. The colourful entryway was something the couple insisted on, and the architects they worked with planned much of the house around it. Made of slatted metal, the door allows light to enter whilst ensuring privacy from the busy street, and opens into a box-like porch. This small hall separates the home from the outside world, where guests can leave their coats and shoes before entering.

Beyond this partition, there are no doors in the house. Instead, the open-plan space uses a variety of paint colours and levels to break up the home into distinct zones, without interrupting the flow of light. The entryway opens into a hall, which leads into Svein’s workspace, the living room and, further back, to the kitchen and patio. Upstairs, Anna’s office overlooks the street, whilst the couple’s bedroom and bathroom are situated at the back of the house, where they can enjoy the morning sun on their balcony.

Although a previous owner had already attempted to convert the old industrial space into something more liveable, Svein and Anna moved in knowing that the house needed a lot of work. In 2010, they hired architects Victoria Gàrriga and Toño Foraster from AV62, who had a unique approach to creating a space that suited them perfectly. “In our first meeting, Gàrriga talked to us for hours about our lives and our daily habits,” Svein remembered. “She sent us away without talking about architecture at all.” An extremely perceptive designer, Gàrriga customised plans based on ease of living. “We liked nearly every one of her proposals,” he admitted.

One of the architects’ more innovative ideas is the green-painted circulation space that stretches up to the roof. With stairs leading up to the right, this bright passage unites the two storeys and adds to the light and airy feel of the house.

A few steps lead down to Svein’s workspace, stacked with books, sketches and papers. An art historian who originally moved to Barcelona for research, he still regularly commutes to Tromsø to teach at the Arctic University of Norway and has recently published a book, Sámi Art and Aesthetics: Contemporary Perspectives (2017). His curved writing desk was custom-built by woodworker Jordi Becerro, who constructed almost all of the furniture in the house, including the floating entertainment centre that lines the living room wall. The latter is a vital piece of equipment for Svein to play his collection of more than 2000 CDs, which are arranged neatly in a hidden cupboard under the stairs. “I’m not against Spotify, but with a CD or an LP, you listen to a specific album as a whole, the way the artist intended,” Svein said. The music fills the tasteful living room, where white-painted brick walls and exposed wooden beams are juxtaposed with a red, retro Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen and a Sixties rosewood coffee table by Anton Kildeberg, both Danish designers.

A partial dividing wall featuring a large, rectangular opening separates the kitchen from the rest of the first floor. The kitchen side of the wall is covered in a giant piece of decorative formica, featuring big circles of earthy tones that add a splash of colour to the otherwise white decor. Produced by graphic designer Jordi Pinós and manufactured in the Basque Country, it was made and transported as a single piece that then had to be put into place like a jigsaw—a painstaking process that led to the piece being remade twice. “Although Svein is the art critic, the colours were inspired by me and my elaborate vegetarian salads,” laughed Anna. 

Not only does Anna love colour in her salads, but also in the jewellery she makes in her spare time. Although the couple hadn’t mentioned anything to the architects, Gàrriga noticed that Anna wore a different necklace to every meeting and incorporated special drawers for her beads in the bedroom plans. Apart from these, the bedroom design is simple—wooden accessories and artistic sketches of nudes complement the white walls and exposed ceiling beams. The rest of the upstairs is dedicated to bookshelves and Anna’s office, where she works on projects for TedxBarcelonaWomen and her own organisation tackling gender issues, La Groc.

Svein moved to Barcelona for his research, but stayed in the city because of Anna and has established a happy home here. Barcelona offers a unique site for him to work and relax in a space that celebrates his life with his wife. “Barcelona and I go together: Barcelona is an old city, and I am an old man.”