Looking to upsize from their condo in Barcelona’s Gràcia district, Masaaki Higashi and Esther Mir had their eye on a two-story apartment that was wedged at the back of a former printing warehouse next door. But when it turned out that the two spaces—partially attached, partially separated by a courtyard—were listed together, they had to reconsider.

“It was rundown, dark, and divided,” recalls Masaaki of his first impression of the warehouse, the ground floor of a multistory apartment building. But after some thought, Masaaki, a Japanese-born architect, and Esther, an artist from Minorca, realized that owning the combined 2,700 square feet would allow them to headquarter Mas-aqui, the architecture and design firm they were planning to start, on-site. They bought the property and within months transformed it into a bright, modern live/work space.

Today the open-air interior courtyard—which Masaaki describes as the “heart of the residence”—is flanked by floor-to-ceiling glass. It separates the couple’s dining area, living room, kitchen, and spare bedroom, which are housed in the main building, from their office on the first floor of the two-story rear add-on. They placed their bedroom above the workspace, with slats of Finnish ThermoWood on the exterior to protect their privacy. New drainage systems and floating insulated flooring were also installed.

Now Masaaki and Esther’s commute consists only of a flight of stairs. And, for the days when foul weather threatens to muck up the short trek across the courtyard, they even designed an overhang and a section of metal wall that swings open to create a “secret” corridor. Says Masaaki, “We’d like to give people a sense of ‘Wow!’ about how space can be used.”

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Related Reading: 20 Spectacular Warehouse-to-Home Conversions

Project Credits:

Architect: Mas-Aqui / @masaqui.architecture