Located in Barcelona’s Turó Park neighborhood, this 635-square-foot apartment by SIGLA Studio challenges one of the most deeply ingrained conventions of domestic architecture: the idea that certain functions must remain hidden. While kitchens have gradually evolved from enclosed service spaces into the social center of the home, bathrooms have largely remained untouched by this transformation. This project asks whether that distinction still makes sense.
Photography by Marta Vidal
Designed for a client relocating to Barcelona, the apartment was conceived as an alternative to the fragmented layouts that still define much of the city’s housing stock. The brief prioritized light, openness, and flexibility over the accumulation of square footage. Rather than dividing the home into a series of independent rooms, the design proposes a continuous living environment where spaces connect, overlap, and adapt to different situations throughout the day.
Photography by Marta Vidal
At the heart of the apartment sits a compact central volume containing the kitchen, bathroom, and dressing area. Instead of functioning as a boundary, this core acts as an organizing device that connects the more private sleeping area with the living space facing the façade. Openings, reflections, and carefully framed views allow natural light and ventilation to flow throughout the entire apartment, creating a sense of spaciousness that belies its modest footprint.
Photography by Marta Vidal
Photography by Marta Vidal
The most distinctive element of the project is undoubtedly the bathtub. Positioned within an open bathroom directly connected to the living area, it becomes a visible and active part of everyday life. More than a plumbing fixture, the bathtub is conceived as a central domestic object. Framed by a grand archway that announces its importance within the apartment, it becomes the setting around which daily routines unfold. A motorized pivoting glass enclosure can provide privacy when required, but during everyday use the bathroom remains open, transforming bathing into another layer of the domestic experience.
Photography by Marta Vidal
Materiality reinforces this spatial strategy. A continuous mineral finish wraps floors, walls, and ceilings, creating a calm and unified backdrop. Within this neutral envelope, the central core is articulated through three distinct materials: aluminum-clad plywood in the kitchen, glossy forest-green ceramic tiles by Cerámica Ferrés in the bathroom, and walnut wood in the dressing area. Together they give each function its own identity while maintaining a cohesive whole.
Photography by Marta Vidal
Rather than prescribing a fixed way of living, the apartment proposes a flexible framework that can evolve alongside its inhabitant. The result is a home that blurs the boundaries between rooms, questions conventional notions of privacy, and explores a more open, connected, and contemporary way of inhabiting domestic space.
