sep, 27th - alemanys5....

day 574:

we stayed in this amazing place over the weekend with some friends. the house is a contemporary restoration of a sixteenth century building by Barcelona architect, Anna Noguera. i'm not sure any of us had ever had a strong desire to visit Girona but the pictures of this place enticed us onto a plane.

and as so seldom happens, it was even better than the pictures. a fantastically well thought out marriage of old stone, steel, wood and glass. it is certainly the small things that make you realise that someone has put serious thought into this building: the perfectly framed and surprising views through windows and doors; gaps between steel shelves and the stone wall to feed through cables; reading lights positioned in just the right spots and interesting shadows created by steel finishes. it was surprising that we saw any of Girona when spending time lounging around the vast space was so thoroughly indulgent after the London Shoebox.