Architect Bernat Riera opens the doors of his recently renovated home, restored by Sigla Studio, which he directs together with architect Sergi Puig.

This Eixample apartment, built in 1925, preserves the essence of its time intact. That century-old memory guided every step of Sigla Studio’s intervention. The home was renovated for Bernat, his partner Liliana, and their dog Hachi. From that shared life, from that intimate everydayness, architecture became less a technical exercise than a gesture of belonging.

The location of the apartment, set within the classic fabric of the Eixample, shaped the project’s attitude from the outset. It was a matter of honouring what the house already knew how to do: its high ceilings supported by wooden beams and Catalan vaults; the sequence of rooms that unfold like interconnected boxes; the load-bearing walls that organise the geometry of the dwelling and that, over generations, have shaped a distinctly Barcelonian way of living.

Archaeological in spirit

Sigla chose to intervene with an attentive, almost archaeological gaze, recovering textures, traces, and materials that had remained hidden under decades of alterations. The entrance corridor was transformed into a threshold where the party-wall brick, carefully revealed, coexists with a new lime-and-gypsum mortar that reintegrates the surface without erasing its history. The old solid pine doors were restored one by one, returning to the wood its original tactility. The windows, now fitted with thicker double glazing, retain their original carpentry.

The decisive change, however, came with the relocation of the kitchen—once confined to a dark interior space—towards the façade overlooking the courtyard block. The home thus regained natural light and cross ventilation, a fundamental resource for Sigla Studio, who understand air and atmosphere as essential components of comfort. This gesture opened a generous daytime space where living room, dining room, kitchen, and studio converse without hierarchy, forming a single continuous realm that integrates past, present, and future.

In the main bedroom, a circular opening in the load-bearing wall introduced the needed light without compromising structural stability. The arch, built in handmade ceramic brick, restores local techniques and avoids unnecessary industrial solutions. This gesture, simple yet elegant, allows light to travel between rooms and makes the home feel wider, more connected to itself.

An exercise in emotional memory

The renovation process became an exercise in emotional memory. Bernat and Sergi sought, in their own experiences, the essence of what defines a home: childhood, daily rituals, the quiet presence of authentic materials. Their intervention thus became a sensitive re-reading of the original apartment, which evolved from a typical early-20th-century layout into a contemporary organisation where domesticity—understood as interior climate, refuge, shared emotion—is the true luxury.

The chosen materials reveal that philosophy. Lime, wood, ceramic, mineral pigments, and traditional finishes—potassium silicates, stuccoes, glazes, natural oils—are applied to preserve the breathability of the substrate and restore the hygroscopic properties of the original materials. The home is wrapped in a system that is not only aesthetic but deeply healthy and sustainable. Reintegration, not replacement, is the rule that governs the entire intervention.

The furnishings and lighting trace a constellation of carefully selected references: Breuer’s Cesca chair, Henningsen’s PH5 lamp, the BKF chair, pieces by Santa & Cole and Louis Poulsen, sculptures and silkscreens by contemporary artists. Each element contributes to a serene atmosphere, where the presence of craftsmanship—such as a custom desk with terrazzo top by Huguet Mallorca, or ceramics by local makers—reaffirms the value of the handmade.

Comfort that is felt

The París project ultimately speaks of a way of living that understands comfort as a profound state, not as an accumulation of features. Sigla Studio reminds us that comfort is felt; it manifests in a ray of light crossing the room, in the temperature of a material, in the quiet of a place where one reads or converses unhurriedly.

In this renovated home, domesticity acquires renewed meaning. It is not just about offering shelter, but about embodying the bonds, intimacy, and emotions that sustain daily life. And in that gesture—discreet yet transcendent—architecture becomes once again what it has always been: a place in which to recognise oneself.

Project: París.
Location: Eixample. Barcelona.
Architecture: Sigla Studio.
Architects: Bernat Riera y Sergi Puig.
Collaborators: Anaïs Colyn, Xavier Serra, Marta Gámiz, Mariela Achón, Marcelina Piskozub.
Photography: Marta Vidal.
Art: Teresa Picazo, Joaquím Chancho, Jaume Morató, Chidy Wayne, El Marqués.
Ceramics: Eloi Bonadona, Mari Masot, Díaz de Cossio, Maria B.
Original painting, flooring, and textures: Art Materia.
Bathroom fittings and accessories:: Icónico.
Source: Sigla Studio.

Sigla Studio

Founded in 2010 in Barcelona’s Eixample district, Sigla Studio is a practice that champions an architecture with its own personality — a singular architecture. From its studio on París Street 170, the team develops projects in architecture, refurbishment, interior design and new construction, always guided by a sensitivity to each space, its memory and its context.

Sigla Studio’s approach goes beyond mere aesthetic transformation: its work is grounded in respecting the essence of each place — its structure, materials and atmosphere — while proposing a clear and coherent design concept that runs through every phase of the project, from the drawings to the finest details. This philosophy seeks to create homes and spaces that, without renouncing their past, respond with dignity to contemporary needs: comfort, functionality, intimacy and aesthetic emotion.

The studio also conceives its relationship with clients as an alliance built on empathy: individuals who are optimistic, attentive to the value of detail, and eager to enhance their quality of life.

Bernat Riera

Bernat Riera trained between Barcelona and Delft, graduating in 2008. He began his professional career collaborating with offices such as RSanabria Arquitectes Associats and TAC Arquitectes; his path later led him to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, where he worked for Urbanus as a project director.

This international experience shaped his sensitivity toward human scale, the relationship with the environment and the importance of detail — qualities he now channels into Sigla as the driving force behind an architecture that understands the home as refuge, as memory, as an intimate construction.

Sergi Puig

Sergi Puig completed his studies in Barcelona, graduating in 2007. His early years were spent at RSanabria Arquitectes Associats, where he took part in major projects such as the Esade Creápolis building and the Dexeus University Institute, assuming responsibilities in drafting and coordination.

Since joining Sigla Studio, Sergi has helped strengthen the practice’s ability to approach projects with technical rigor and poetic sensitivity, always preserving the dignity of the inhabited space.

The philosophy shared by Bernat and Sergi defines a clear method: to listen to the place, to converse with its walls, to respect the material memory, while at the same time proposing sensitive reinterpretations that transform everyday life.

Sigla Studio chooses its clients as partners: people who value the honesty of materials, the authenticity of spaces and the harmony between past and present. In this way, their works — rehabilitated homes, family houses, renewed interiors — become spaces of intimacy, refuge, interior climate, history and life.

Project by Sigla Studio