Compartir restaurant, Barcelona

The architectural and interior design drawn up for Compartir Barcelona reprises the characteristically imaginative twist that is unique to the city of Cadaqués, while revisiting it in a captivatingly contemporary, urban style.

Slate streets, blue windows overlooking the sea, boats bobbing in the bay and handmade wickerwork filling the town’s alleyways. Such are the ingredients that forge the lively, artistic spirit of Cadaqués, one of the Spanish towns to which Salvador Dalí was most attached. Transferring the Mediterranean essence of this Catalan town – home to the first “Compartir” restaurant – to a new gastronomic venue in Barcelona, was therefore the main goal of the design firm El Equipo Creativo, which was commissioned by the restaurant’s owners to create a contemporary environment that would also retain the distinctive features of its coastal roots.

The architectural and interior design drawn up for Compartir Barcelona thus reprises the characteristically imaginative twist that is unique to the city of Cadaqués, while revisiting it in a captivatingly contemporary, urban style.

DESIGN CONCEPT

The restaurant is located in a classic building in the Eixample district, featuring a spectacular steel structure dating back to the early 20th century. It’s the kind of space that would work perfectly as an art gallery with large abstract paintings on display. This was the idea that sparked the design concept for the restaurant, whose centrepiece is a large white space punctuated by three imaginary “blue windows” facing the Mediterranean Sea: one sculptural, one pictorial and one textile. Each was produced with the collaboration of a different artist, who helped create a series of bespoke pieces, specially designed for the restaurant.

The rounded shapes of the mirrors and wicker partitions, combined with the lamps that sprinkle baths of light all around, create a warm counterpoint and give every area of Compartir an intimately convivial feel. The bars and kitchens are designed with simple, decisive lines, and act as “energy centres” that inject positivity and vitality into the various sections of the venue.

MATERIALS-BASED MEDITERRANEAN ATMOSPHERE

The stand-out feature of the restaurant is the authentic, light-touch atmosphere that emanates from the materials and their hints of the Mediterranean, which finds expression in warm, white, textured surfaces and hand-crafted pieces. A range of natural materials conceptually connect Compartir Barcelona with the architectural landscape of Cadaqués. The grey colour of the slate and its application in "trencadís” – an ornamental technique widely used in Catalan modernist architecture – together with the natural colour of the terracotta tiles and its contrast with the vivid blue of the “windows”, creates an intense, evocative backdrop that almost feels like a scene from a painting.

To underscore the link with its terroir, El Equipo Creativo also opted to use entirely local materials and products, as well as local artists and artisans to design the bespoke pieces.