Magazine
AIT Online
HOTEL ACTA MIMIC
Germany
SLEEP: HOTEL IN BARCELONA
The formerly disreputable old-town area of Raval in Barcelona has for some time now become a trendy district. Nowadays, modern bars, restaurants and museums here co-exist with ramshackle buildings from the 19th century. In 1995, a shining white UFO landed in this dense old-town structure – Richard Meier’s museum ofcontemporary art. Morethan 15 years later, new architectures still look like alien elements. This is also the case of the Acta Mimic Hotel by EQUIP Xavier Claramunt. Yet this is far from a new building but the transformation of a dilapidated theatre. Only the façades have been preserved. As a second shell, in front of them the architect has suspended gigantic, translucent vinyl fabric with glaring-colourful scenes from comics. With this design, EQUIP wanted to be anything but politically correct. Glaring colours and expressive furniture embody the dynamic of the street; organically shaped courtyards admit light into the lobbies on the lowerlevel. On the otherhand, the rooms with just a few splashes of colour radiate tranquillity.