2018 CONTENT IN ENGLISH 83 HOTEL SOFÍA THE RADICAL RENOVATION OF A HISTORIC HOTEL IN BARCELONA The former ‘Princesa Sofía’ of Barcelona, now Hotel Sofía, reopened its doors last October, after a complete renovation that left behind, not only its royal title but its classic design, a characteristic part of the hotel during four decades, when it was the most important hotel of the city, an icon of modernity, externally as well as internally. The lighting, created by de- signer Birgit Walter, creative director of the BMLD studio, was a key piece of the renovation. In the center of the main lobby, which features two lev- els linked by elevators and a main staircase, an emergent view created with rectangular planes in every direction and installed at different heights, stands out. The sculpture of the atrium, displayed from the false ceiling, generates, through its volume, a dynamic play of brilliances, reflec- tions, lights and shadows in the central area. As a matter of fact, every object in the sculpture is capable of giving and receiving light and shadow, creating a supporting system of connections. As the sculpture, at the center of the lobby, breaks the symmetry of the space infusing it with dyna- mism, the lighting strives to “highlight the space and its qualities”, according to Birgit Walter. The floating planes incorporate a strip of opal LEDs inside the vertical and hori- zontal borders; and depending on the plane and the loca- tion they can light up with a color temperature reaching 2200K for the golden panels and 2700K for the silver ones. Likewise, to accompany the main sculpture, the surround- ing areas, with their rectangular silver and white planes, installed in different directions, have downlights from iGuzzini, with darklight technology, that follow a random order and illuminate the traffic and work areas while the surrounding areas remain darker. The individual front desks have an extremely thin pendant luminary (1x1 cm), rendering it invisible to the visitor. The reception area also has LEDs integrated in the furniture to further illuminate the front desk area, and for the matte bronze latticework, downlight darklight of 8o was built-in the ceiling to minimize its visibility. Using custom made decorative luminaries and pendant luminaries from Davide Groppi enhanced the design. On the other side, the monumental staircase, has two light- ing systems: One, integrated in the bottom part to em- phasize the steps, another one, up high, integrated in the banister, adds volume. All the lighting systems are LED, ad- justable and with a color temperature from 2200-3000oK. OUTLET SPACES OF GREAT BEAUTY The architect, Jaime Beriestain was responsible for design- ing the six outlet spaces (club, cocktail lounge, restaurant, skybar, bar and coffee shop) of the Hotel Sofía with the intention of making them accessible to the people of Bar- celona as well as to the guests of the hotel. The ‘Filosofía’ book café is worth mentioning, with 5,000 books in its shelves; Birgit Walter tells us about its lighting: “It’s a space that gets lots of sunlight, used mainly during the day and has bookshelves around most of the perimeter. We created an enclosure lighting for the project with a central point, the ceiling coving”. For BeSo, another work of Beriestain, that comprises three areas (cocktail lounge, gastronomic restaurant and a lounge), BMLD chose something different considering it is essentially a nighttime space and the bar is a central area. “We incorporated the lighting in the bar counter and used enclosure lightings”, said Walter. She added that for the lighting design of the restaurant they used adjustable downlights from Lucent with technology from Soraa, due to its “versatility to adjust the luminary and chromatic reproduction”. Additionally, LED strips from Ledlinear were used as well as decorative lighting from other manufacturers. Also noteworthy is the disco-club ZUU, of Burlesque inspi- ration, the pool bar and the lounge bar Skybar, where you feel as if on deck of a big ship. Without doubt, one of the largest spaces of the Hotel Sofía is the restaurant IMPAR, measuring 670 square meters and access from the street or from the lobby through a transparent wine wall. The wall that separates the reception from the restaurant is a large screen, custom made and of Mediterranean inspira- tion that offers the possibility of modifying and creating the surroundings throughout the day. Each panel has one side done in rustic aged ceramic and the other side with a smoked patina. Furthermore, to ensure an adequate ambi- ance, the screens turn into luminaries by means of a com- position of exposed lightbulbs. After this large renovation, the new Hotel Sofía, referent of local social life in the 70’, aspires to become an enclave where modernity, the Mediterranean and history come to- gether to receive tourists and continue to be a small icon in the landscape of the ‘Diagonal’ in Barcelona. Project: Hotel Sofia, Barcelona Location: Barcelona, Spain Lighting Design: design BMLD designing with light Client: Selenta Group Architectural Design Studio: Selenta Group Main Lighting Suppliers: Ledlinear, iGuzzini, Davide Groppi, Dynalite Photography: Álvaro Valdecantos The objects that form the sculpture in the lobby are capable of giving and receiving light and shadow, creating a supporting system of connections. The reception area also has LEDs inte- grated in the furniture to further illu- minate the front desk area, and for the matte bronze latticework, downlight darklight of 8o was built-in the ceiling to minimize its visibility.