The commission consists of the renovation of an 80m2 commercial premises with two floors located on the ground floor of a 20th century building, located in a square between the centre of the old city and the Barcelona network (Eixample). The new premises will be used as a sandwich bar open from 9 am to midnight where you can have breakfast, fast food or even cocktails, linking the character of fast food to the dynamism that surrounds the area; several office buildings, two subway stations, main avenues, etc.

We understand the project as an opportunity to recover what we consider essential in the premises: the triangular geometry of the space, the generous original height of the premises and its character. Regarding this last point, the establishment functioned during the 40s as ambiguous, being the former bar of the theatre which is still located on the other side of the square. Although the theatre and the bar are no longer linked in functional terms, we propose to establish a link between the two through the materiality of the bar. The intensification of material memory is not at all nostalgic or romantic, but an unprejudiced and integrative attitude was chosen that instead of discriminating between different things, it opted for the integration of both; in this way, certain layers of a past (octagonal concrete columns) were updated that coexist with other added layers, in a face-to-face relationship, echoing two fundamental issues: the old theatre, using mirrors, lights or the carpeted ceiling and the old sandwich shops of Barcelona, with the use of marble.

The bar is located on the ground floor, where the materials have been defined following a stratification of 3 strips in order to increase the perception of the height of the premises; marble on the floor, wooden boards and mirrors on the walls and black carpet on the ceiling. In the basement, where the toilets and storage are located, the existing walls have been directly and simply painted blue in order to balance the investment on the ground floor.

The process was extremely fast (three months in total) and with strong financial constraints, so we opted for a clear and determined strategy: DIY. This has allowed them to operate in an open sequence of action-reaction, where errors and modifications in the work are understood as added value. We are interested in a hybrid technique capable of treating local materials and techniques close to the craft tradition with materials and industrial techniques from other origins.