Excited to announce that Soho House Barcelona is nearly complete!
We have been working closely with Soho House for the last year on their expansion into Barcelona. Soho House Barcelona is a members' club with bedrooms in the Gothic Quarter, facing the Port Vell Marina. They wanted to create a Palladiana mosaic pattern for the roof top pool area and after seeing our green marble mosaics they decided to include this awesome border.
Initially we were approached with the two images below as inspiration for the floor. Although these might give a similar look they are both very different processes in manufacturing. The image on the left is a terrazzo meaning that chips of marble are set in a concrete slab, polished to give a smooth surface and cut to size. However, the image on the right is a Palladiana floor which is traditionally created in situ and chips are installed and cement is poured around it until it is ground.
In order to keep the variation in sizes of chips whilst keeping it simple to install and cost effective we decided to hand make the mosaic sheets that you can see below. Here is the initial samples which were specified for the project.
In order to make the mosaic floor suitable for a swimming pool surround we developed multiple samples in a range of finishes and tested them in-house with our pendulum machine. After this process we managed to develop the perfect finish for the floor. We also developed several different grout options and after careful consideration Soho House decided on the floor seen below.
Due to the tight time line to complete this development we had to change our production line to produce 450m2 within the 5 weeks time limit.
Here are some shots of what's been going on on site from Soho House:
This 400m2 rooftop pool area really is the feature of this Soho House and we loved being a part of this process. Check out this link for more information on the development.