Crusch Alba apartment by Gus Wustemann

On the street Banys Nous, in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, the Swiss architect Gus Wüstemann has transformed an old, dark floor to make their own housing. Crusch Alba, and has called it, is now a spacious apartment through a nifty cross-shaped distribution. Something had to invent to redistribute this old, dark floor of the historic area of the city. The main facade, with three large balconies overlooking the street Banys Nous, was the starting point: the only area of this apartment with good natural light had to be used as to include spacious living room and lounge.
A main wall dividing the floor into two, separating the illuminated part of the rest of the apartment, which had a more complicated and interrupted by different light wells that barely let in some ventilation. This dark rear areas was to house the kitchen and bathroom, three bedrooms as well as necessary for the family of the architect. And here, the Swiss Gus Wüstemann, devised an innovative solution to create a white cross (crusch alba) is now the axis of movement for this complicated part of the house.
In this comprehensive reform has been sought that space does not come defined by walls but by sliding doors, the entire apartment can be used as open space, loft or a traditional 3-floor rooms. The heterogeneous plant has been ordered by the central cross-shaped organizing the movement and brings light to the rear of the apartment, with very little natural light. On the Cross were installed kitchen and bathroom, fully lined with white material and equipped with a powerful artificial lighting. The kitchen has become a place of passage, almost in the center of the floor distributor, and all its elements are hidden in cabinets that make it look like a hall when not in use. Large sliding doors allow the room to become individual bedrooms or added to the same shared family space with the kitchen. The same has been done with the bathroom, which can be hidden behind a sliding door that separates it from a rest area in a room of children.
Thus, the central white cross, radically contemporary, has become a bright center between fragmented areas of small courtyards, a modern island of light between the medieval walls. A separation between new and old that constituted not only the distribution of the plant but also the aesthetics of the floor. In the rest of the space, walls and ceilings have been left in its original state, preserving its irregular finishes that have been preserved and protected with a coat of varnish. The wooden furniture made to order, complemented by selected pieces of contemporary furniture, is designed as a continuation of the parquet floor, and installed over the old volumes that make socket structure of wainscot or bed, depending on space.
Wüstemann Gus is a Swiss architect with offices in Zurich and Barcelona, where he also resides. To Wüstemann architecture and urban planning are a catalyst in society and he likes to define his work as a free design. Use simple materials out of context and take advantage of new construction methods to achieve a sophisticated architecture but economically reasonable.