Long Flat — An Oak-Lined Barcelona Hideaway For Future Retirement
Long Flat unfolds inside a former office apartment in Barcelona, Spain, reworked by MIEL Arquitectos for a Boston family with roots in Shanghai. The project stretches between the lively Rambla de Catalunya and a quiet inner courtyard, tying together social life, retreat, and long-term plans for retirement. Materials, rescued fragments, and tailored joinery carry the story of an Eixample property updated for many chapters of family use.
Light filters in from the boulevard and drifts toward the quiet courtyard, catching on oak slats and clay-toned walls along the way. A once-anonymous office floor now reads as a long, calm apartment where restored fragments and new pieces share the same warm register.
This apartment in Barcelona’s Eixample district is reworked by MIEL Arquitectos for a Boston family planning both frequent visits and eventual retirement. The layout bridges the social front along the Rambla de Catalunya and the more private rear facing the inner courtyard, and the interior story is carried by a consistent palette of warm materials and tailored furniture. Every room holds some echo of the past, paired with new surfaces designed to endure years of intermittent but meaningful use.
Tracing The Long Dragon
A continuous built element, nicknamed the “Long,” winds through the plan as a kind of habitable wall. It softens the once-rigid structure of load-bearing walls, turning them into oak-clad curves that conceal storage, services, and circulation. Along its length, the dragon becomes bench, shower enclosure, and bar cabinet, always wrapped in slats, clay paints, or hand-laid tiles that give a tangible rhythm under changing light. This sinuous run creates a gentle threshold between the yin of the courtyard bedroom wing and the yang of the street-facing living rooms.
Rooms Between Street And Courtyard
At one end, the ensuite main bedroom faces the lush inner gardens, gaining quieter air and a more withdrawn mood. Children’s double bedrooms sit toward the middle, buffered by a shared bathroom, a compact toilet, and a kitchen that all plug into the Long’s infrastructure. Laundry and mechanical rooms hide behind smoked glass and oak paneling, so day-to-day clutter stays out of sight while remaining close at hand. At the other extreme, the living and dining room open toward the Rambla, anchoring the social life of the home with a view back to the city.
Kitchen Arches And Shared Table
The kitchen now connects to the living-dining room through three new arches cut through the former dividing wall. These openings keep the wall’s thickness legible while allowing sightlines and conversation to move freely between cooking and gathering. A central island of almost 4 meters becomes the practical heart, used as much for meal preparation as for evening cocktails and long conversations. The old conference table, once part of the office life, is recast here as a generous celebration table where family and friends gather.
Rescued Fragments, Warm Palette
Several century-old elements are lifted from obscurity and given new roles in the apartment. The marble sink now presides over the toilet, while rescued mosaic tiles appear as bedside tables that bring history right up to the pillow. Original doors shift into new positions, preserving their patina yet working with the updated layout, and delicate plaster moldings remain as quiet evidence of the building’s bourgeois origins. Around these artifacts, stained-glass windows, a cylindrical shower, and the bar cabinet are crafted as new one-off pieces in a family of browns, ochres, and whites.
Light moves from the street toward the courtyard over this palette of warm tones, catching grain, glaze, and glass at different times of day. The apartment keeps its long axis and its conventional rooms, yet the material choices and furniture give it a softer, more continuous reading. Over time, as the family shifts from occasional visits to daily life here, these surfaces are ready to age with them.
Photography by Jose Hevia
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