Inside the new 'house of eyebrows' in Barcelona, the building with the most expensive homes in Spain

[Inkriql]

When the Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan first entered the former Winterthur headquarters in the Plaza de Francesc Macià, in Barcelona, he felt a “very powerful” sensation that multiplied as he walked through the different floors. “It was like a blind date,” explains the award-winning founder of the MK27 studio based in São Paulo in an interview with ICON Design.

In front of him I had the challenge of transforming this property designed in the sixties by the Swiss architect Marc J. Saugey, under the spirit of the Bauhaus, to house the offices of the insurer, in seven luxury homes for the most clients exclusive

With his vision as a filmmaker, his second passion after architecture, he describes his visit: “It was strange and strange, but very intriguing at the same time. The more I knew him, the more I loved him. ” Gradually, he discovered the “unique, but not obvious” beauty that hides behind its peculiar convex curve facade to one of the busiest roundabouts in Barcelona in the Diagonal.

It is the first project of rehabilitation of a building of these characteristics that Kogan undertakes, whose works are characterized by formal simplicity, the interrelation between inside and outside, and the use of pure elements inherited from brutalism.

A profile at the height to make it the first “jewel” building in Spain, similar to super-luxury promotions so fashionable in cities like London or New York. In December 2018, he was already awarded the prize for the best rehabilitation in the world by the World Festival of Interiors.

The result is seven exclusive homes of 600 square meters with all its glass facade open in a single space to the city. "It frames it as a panoramic film," explains Kogan, who has applied the "strong" connection between the building and the energy of Barcelona. The interior-exterior relationship of all his works.

The property has common services at the height of a five-star hotel with swimming pool, gym and even a private cellar. Kogan has also been responsible for interior design with rooms covered with American walnut, carrara marbles, statuary and marquina, and black granite, within the gray and brown palette. “The goal was to make a sophisticated house in an elegant city: to mix the old and the new,” concludes Kogan.

The architect Suzana Glogowski, from the MK27 studio, who has led the project with Diana Radomysler, describes the result as “a strange and delicate mix” between the rounded towers of the Chicago Marina City (Bertrand Goldberg) and the refined Seagram Building by Mies van der Rohe in New York.

The options do not end there. The promotion has two interior designs for the apartments made by the Belgian architect and designer Vincent Van Duysen and the Italian Vincenzo de Cotiis.

The first has devised the main area of the house with a range of colors between beige and gray with rounded furniture adapted to the [CENSORED]ture of the facade. The interior of the Italian is a reflection of its rough but refined elegance with counted pieces of its sculpture furniture.

The initiative to bring to Barcelona the concept of residences destined for 1% has been the investment fund Squircle Capital, owned by José Caireta, which has already promoted the opening of the Mandarin Oriental hotel. In 2012, he acquired the building and hired Kogan for this purpose.