Hasta La Ideas

Architect Sergio Rojo has renovated a dilapidated nineteenth-century cultural centre to create a hostel for weary travellers on the Way of St James pilgrimage route in northern Spain (+ slideshow).

Sergio Rojo transformed the former liceo – an educational facility for arts and literature – to create a sanctuary in the town of Logroño in Spain’s La Rioja wine-growing region.

The town is a frequent stop for pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St James in Galicia, on Spain’s northwestern tip.

The building fell into disrepair at the beginning of the twentieth century, after a new theatre with similar facilities was completed close by.

“It seems that its different inhabitants, like the soup kitchen of the city or the funeral home, didn’t appreciate the strength of its outstanding architectural qualities and therefore didn’t take care of it,” said Rojo. “That is why the liceo fell into oblivion for decades until now.”

Rojo retained the surviving five wooden trusses and beams in the roof, but used new timbers to provide support directly beneath the tiles.

When entering through the restored facade, a hospital room is located to the right and a kitchen plus storage areas are on the left.

Straight ahead, a ramp leads up to a large communal dining room with red chairs, columns and light fixtures breaking up the plain white surfaces.

Two small sleeping areas and washrooms are situated behind the eating area on this floor, while the majority of the accommodation can be found on the floor above.

Upstairs, internal walls only extend to the height of a standard room to leave a open space under the roof so the large trusses can be appreciated.

A void contained by glass walls in the centre of the space brings daylight from a hole in the roof down to the ground floor.

Bunk beds are arranged in rows down the outer walls and bathrooms are clustered along the centre, plus there are two private rooms with ensuite bathrooms.

Three more double bedrooms are fitted in at the front of the property, facing onto the street.

A balcony on top of these is accessed via the same staircase that connects all three floors.

Read on for more information sent to us by the architect:

During the last years of the nineteenth century, this building hosted the Liceo Artísitico Literario, a cultural society which needed urgently a stage while the main theatre was being built.

Coinciding with the inauguration of the Teatro Bretón de los Herreros, towards the first years of the twentieth century, the decadence of the Liceo started.

It seems that its different inhabitants (like the soup kitchen of the city or the Pastrana funeral home, among others) didn’t appreciate enough the strength of its outstanding architectonic qualities, and therefore didn’t take care of it.

That is why the Liceo fell into oblivion for decades till our years.

Fortunately, the power of the Way of Saint James has saved it from ruin, given that the new owners have found in it the perfect place for exploiting a pilgrim hostel.

Moreover, the restoration of this place has permitted to reinforce the urban links that existed among other Jacobean milestones as the stone bridge over the Ebro, the San Gregorio’s chapel or the imperial church Santa Maria de Palacio, first pilgrim hospice known in Logroño.

The recovering of the main facade, and above all, the original roof, elevated on five centenary wooden trusses, whose typology is a rare example at this part of the country, are the focal elements of the refurbishment.

So the pilgrims have the opportunity of sleeping under five old gambrel trusses, in this building whose architect could be Jacinto Arregui.

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on medieval pilgrimage route appeared first on Dezeen.

Bunk bed booths provide sleeping sanctuaries at this hostel in Split, Croatia, by local designer Lana Vitas Gruić (+ slideshow).

The new hostel houses 15 beds divided between two rooms accessed from a lobby, which features branding also by Gruić of Atom Design.

In the largest room, colourful units with simple white rails and ladders each house two beds, while the blue block in the centre of the largest room is double-sided to accommodate four.

Two more units are situated in a smaller all-white room, with an extra bed raised high above the ground that appears to balance on lockers.

Desks and shelves accompanied by a mixture of chair styles offer space for guests to eat or use laptops within the dorms.

Photos of lesser-known sites around the city have been blown up to cover walls.

Owners Mila and Toni Radan worked with Gruić to convert the disused apartment, located close to the city’s port and historic Diocletian’s Palace. “From the beginning, it was our desire to create a comfortable, functional and modern space that has the spirit of a Split street,” they say.

Recently we published a story about five wooden cabins that fan out around a site on Tokyo Bay to form capsule accommodation.

Other projects in Croatia include a fashion boutique with rubber-coated fabric pinned to the walls and a house with one storey the dramatically overhangs the floor below.

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See more architecture and design in Croatia »

New hostel in Split

Split has got a new hostel. Emanuel Hostel is located in Tolstoy Street and is part of the apartment house from the first half of the 20th century. Mila and Toni Radan, the owners of the hostel, adapt completely ruined apartment into a hostel with 15 beds. Toni, who is otherwise engaged in adaptations of similar objects, creates forms and deployment of space, and interior design and visual identity is done by Split designer Lana Vitas Gruić (Atom Design Studio).

From the beginning, it was our desire to create a comfortable, functional and modern space that has the spirit of a Split street. The design was created as a product of fusion, conjuction of the hostel’s name meaning, identity of the Mediterranean climate and the tendency of creating a design hostel. The style is eclectic, as evidenced by the contrast of clear, modern lines of bed forms with chairs and accessories from the 50s and 60s of the last century.

In addition to being a place to relax, refresh and sleep, the hostel can serve as a space for socialising – a kind of a living room with internet service and free breakfast so it does not have exclusively a transitional character of typical of hostels, but a warm, pleasant and airy space that is not only a “dorm”.

Since in the Mediterranean life is always happening outside, on the streets, and there is a strong culture of cafes, we transferred that same street and exterior onto the hostel’s interior walls with photos of Split motifs. To avoid banalisation, photo-wallpapers’ motifs are not the much-vaunted ones of Split such as towers, peristyle, waterfront or street moments of a full market-place and fish-market. We have tried to achieve a fine blend of an outdoor and indoor living, a street object like barrel beside an armchair which is part of someone’s living room. From such approach we interpret relaxed quality, almost modesty, that nonetheless does not occur by accident, but as a result of a methodical work and experience.

Hostel Emanuel is a place with a story and a family project which primarily arises from the enthusiasm and the special spirit of its owners and all who participated in that process.

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by Lana Vitas Gruić appeared first on Dezeen.