Performing a sharp, sculptural “furniture as architecture” design approach, Aramé Studio establishes a finely calibrated dialogue between the measured gravity of a 1903 two-storey building in Barcelona’s Poblenou district and the studio’s stainless-steel intelligence of contemporary domestic craft. Casa Jaume Bach Esteve has been awarded Best House of the Year 2025 by Archisearch, recognized for its exemplary hybrid spatial ecosystem in which furniture operates as a space-producing tool.

INNER COURTYARD. CASA JAUME BACH ESTEVE REINTERPRETS A 1903 POBLENOU BUILDING, NEGOTIATING BETWEEN INDUSTRIAL MEMORY AND CONTEMPORARY DOMESTIC LIFE.
INNER COURTYARD AS A CLIMATIC BUFFER: A PLANTED PATIO INTRODUCES GREENERY, VENTILATION, AND VISUAL CALM INTO THE HEART OF THE DWELLING.

In Poblenou, where layers of Barcelona’s industrial history and everyday life quietly coexist, the house is rearticulated as a single-family house—at once a dwelling and a workspace.

THE GROUND-FLOOR WORKSPACE UNFOLDS AS AN EXTENSION OF DOMESTIC LIFE, WHERE FURNITURE OPERATES AS SPATIAL INFRASTRUCTURE RATHER THAN DECORATION.
A CONTINUOUS SPATIAL BODY EMERGES, SHAPED BY MOVEMENT, RITUAL, AND LIGHT.
THE STAIRCASE LEADING TO THE BASEMENT. CIRCULATION IS CHOREOGRAPHED THROUGH FINELY CALIBRATED DETAILS, WHERE MOVEMENT REVEALS SPACE GRADUALLY.
WHITEWASHED VAULTS PRESERVE THE BUILDING’S TEMPORAL DEPTH WHILE SOFTENED DAYLIGHT INTRODUCES MOMENTS OF PAUSE.

The project unfolds through a radical yet restrained premise: furniture becomes the project’s true syntax—no longer ornamental, but infrastructural.

A FREE-STANDING BASIN BECOMES A FUNCTIONAL OBJECT, REINFORCING THE FURNITURE-AS-ARCHITECTURE APPROACH.
A HYBRID DOMESTIC–WORKING ENVIRONMENT GROUNDED IN CLARITY.
ARAMÉ STUDIO’S ORCHESTRATED DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE RESTORED 1903 STRUCTURE AND THEIR CONTEMPORARY INTERVENTIONS.

Space is not declared in advance; it reveals itself gradually, shaped by movement, ritual, and presence. The domestic experience emerges through repetition, use, and memory. Threaded through the historic shell, stainless-steel interventions appear with deliberate precision.

DAYLIGHT SOFTLY ANIMATES THE ARCHITECTURAL SURFACES.
THE ELONGATED STAINLESS-STEEL KITCHEN ISLAND ACTS AS A SCULPTURAL ANCHOR—ARCHITECTURE REDUCED TO INTENTION.

Reflective, taut, and almost surgical, they operate as unapologetically functional spatial instruments—measuring, anchoring, and tuning domestic life.

MINIMAL INTERIORS PUNCTUATED BY CURATED STAINLESS-STEEL ELEMENTS THREAD CONTEMPORARY LANGUAGE THROUGH THE HISTORIC FABRIC.
CLOSE-UP OF THE SCULPTURAL KITCHEN ISLAND.
EVERYDAY SPACES ARE ARTICULATED THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL RESTRAINT AND MATERIAL CLARITY, DEMONSTRATING HOW OLD AND NEW CO-EXIST WITHOUT NOSTALGIA.

The elongated, curvilinear kitchen island functions as a focal datum: a bold force that stabilizes the interior without imposing weight. The existing masonry is allowed to retain its density and temporal depth. New insertions neither mimic nor overpower; they remain legible, exact, and self-aware.

QUIET TRANSITIONAL NOOKS.

Whitewashed vaults and softened daylight introduce moments of pause, allowing the house to breathe between gestures.

ON THE TERRACE, METALLIC MINIMALISM REACHES ITS MOST DISTILLED EXPRESSION AGAINST RAW EXISTING WALLS.
SLENDER CABINETRY AND ADJUSTABLE BLINDS NEGOTIATE EXPOSURE AND CONCEALMENT WITH LIGHT AND USE.
EVERY DETAIL—BENT STEEL, JUNCTIONS, AND FINISHES—EXPRESSES AN ARCHITECTURE OF ATTENTIVENESS.

This metallic minimalism extends seamlessly to the terrace, where it reaches its most distilled expression. Slender cabinetry aligns against raw walls, partially screened by adjustable blinds that shift with light and use. Exposure and concealment, permanence and adaptability, are held in delicate balance. Every gesture is deliberate. Every detail—an exposed conduit, a finely bent handrail, a free-standing basin—reinforces an architecture grounded in clarity.

THE ROOFTOP TERRACE SHAPED BY LIGHTWEIGHT METAL CABINETRY AND WOODEN DECKING WORKS AS AN EXTENSION OF THE HOUSE.

There is no desire to impress, only to articulate contemporary domesticity through a furniture-architecture of attentiveness.

A LONG TABLE AND SIMPLE CHAIRS DEFINE A COMMUNAL LIVING AREA, REINFORCING THE IDEA OF SHARED DOMESTIC RITUALS BEYOND THE INTERIOR.
STAINLESS-STEEL MODULES ECHO THE INTERIOR KITCHEN’S LOGIC, REINFORCING A CONTINUOUS ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE FROM INSIDE TO OUTSIDE.
THE TERRACE OPENS TOWARD BARCELONA’S SKYLINE, SITUATING DAILY LIFE WITHIN THE BROADER METROPOLITAN CONTEXT.

Casa Jaume Bach Esteve unfolds as an architectural narrative in which past and present are read in parallel—a home both grounded and agile, where history and contemporaneity coexist without nostalgia, yet with design rigor.

RESTORED FAÇADE WITH CONTEMPORARY CLARITY.

Drawings

GROUND FLOOR PLAN
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
SECTION

Facts & Credits
Project title  Casa Jaume Bach Esteve
Typology  Residential, Housing, Refurbishment, Workspace
Location  Poblenou, Barcelona, Spain
Status  Completed, 2025
Architecture  Aramé Studio
Photography  Del Rio Bani


RELATED ARTICLES