The project is a rehabilitation of an old industrial building of which only the main forged structure has been recovered. The program of the new hotel was very extensive for the small size of the site (8 x 25 metres), so the initial effort was focused on fitting the large number of rooms necessary for its operation, in addition of two new stairs and common services.

Later, our attention was focused on the definition of the public part of the building, i.e., the lobbies of the type floors, of the ground floor, with the reception and the bar, and of the façade to the street, the hotel's main claim.

The use of exposed brick for the façade was the client’s wish, who values this ceramic material's great durability, low maintenance and the warmth of its colours. This desire of the client, added to the personality of the area where the hotel is located, with a marked theatrical character, resulted in a proposal that experiments with the colours of the ceramic brick and its placement possibilities.

The new hotel brings the theatre theme into scene, with its intense activity in front of and behind the scene, making it the protagonist of the old industrial building. The façade is not made up of windows but builds a curtain of coloured bands that completely covers it. Now, the inhabitants of the hotel appear and disappear between the movement and the folds of these curtains.

The façade is organised in continuity with the ground floor. Dealing with a narrow and long piece of land both in plan and height, one plane being almost a mirror of the other at ninety degrees, the project was developed in both dimensions at the same time. The façade descends from the highest point with all the bricks in a row, at high speed, and when we reach the ground floor it seems to turn and also enter very quickly horizontally, leading us to the bottom of the site.

The strips of bricks echo the vertical stripes of the neighbouring houses on this same street, continuing their colours: yellow, orange, red... The bricks are placed vertically to express their non-loadbearing function, and they are attached to the existing slabs with steel profiles, like a curtain wall.

In the constructive detail that indicates the order of placement, the bricks look like books on a shelf. While they were manipulated in the work, held by their higher side and attending to the arrangement according to the different coloured spines, they turned the operators into librarians for a few seconds.

The various colours are grouped in more or less wide strips, to which the five artificial stone pilasters that framed the façade of the original building are added. Each sash, made up of a variable number of rows of bricks, has a continuous horizontal joint, not interlocked, and this joint is different for each colour. This gives unity to each colour, which runs as a band independent of the others.

When you reach the street, this curtain folds further to open the entrance to the hotel and its small cafe. There, the façade brings the void of the street inward at double height to let visitors in and out of the hotel, creating an intermediate staircase between the street and the interior lobby. It is an open-air hall, with brick curtains that act as latticework and allow a glimpse of the houses in front. Into this lobby they go out to receive the interior flooring, also with bands of two colours, and some volumes that, like controlling eyes, contain the reception and a small office for the owner of the hotel to do accounts, or take a nap.

On the ground floor, we place the customer staircase at the bottom of the plot and in the diagonal corner opposite the entrance. In this way, we achieve that, upon entering, the view travels the maximum dimension of the lot, disguising its dimensions and making it appear larger than it is. This diagonal direction directs the movement of people and the ordering of activities on this floor. The various actions that will take place: checking in, going to the bar, taking the elevator... take place against the dividing walls, forming lateral bulkheads, surrounded by long lines that give speed and accompany the passage from one side to the other of the hotel. These lines are formed from walls that sometimes reach the floor and sometimes hang from the ceiling, framing the tourist in either of these situations, or helping him to disappear from the scene quickly.