THE AREA ROUND THE OLD MARKETPLACE OF EL BORN DISTRICT HAS ALWAYS BEEN CHARACTERISED BY HECTIC ACTIVITIES, AS REVEALED WHEN THE WORK OF CONVERTING THE OLD 19TH CENTURY MARKET INTO A LIBRARY UNCOVERED RUINS DATING FROM THE EARLY 18TH CENTURY. THE REMAINS WERE PART OF THE OLD CITY, A WHOLE SECTION OF WHICH WAS DEMOLISHED IN 1714 (AFTER THE FALL OF BARCELONA IN THE WAR OF SUCCESSION TO THE SPANISH THRONE) TO MAKE WAY FOR A HUGE FORT FROM WHICH THE SPANISH ARMY COULD CONTROL THE BARCELONA. THE CITADEL WAS DEMOLISHED IN THE 1870’S, AND REPLACED BY A PARK AND THE MARKET. IN THE LAST DECADES, THE TRADITIONAL FOOD TRADE GIVEN WAY TO CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERIES, AND MORE RECENTLY TO PLACES RELATED TO ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN. ONE OF THEM IS ARTQUITECT, WITH ITS EXHIBITION SPACE CHANGING TO THE RHYTHM OF THE BIENNIAL SPRING OF DESIGN ORGANISED BY FAD. IT SPECIALISES IN BATHROOMS, A TOPIC TO WHICH THIS COMPANY CONTRIBUTES A NEW PHILOSOPHY.

Daily Shower
The premises occupied by ArtQuitect had originally been a fruit warehouse. When the new shop opened at the beginning of the nineties it already had a clear message that everything in a bathroom should be a regularly renewable consumer good, not just to be refurbished only when some catastrophe makes it absolutely necessary. To get their project in gear, and beyond their own stubbornness, the promoters only found the support of the designer bars –and again it should be mentioned that they are considered pivotal in the take-off of modern design in Barcelona. Designer bars had bathrooms to match the high quality of design and imagination that went into the rest of the place. Thanks to them, the public began to understand that a bathroom can hide a world of beauty beyond the typical choice: bathtub, half-bath or shower. To express the concept of an imaginative and personal bathroom, comparing to the living room or the bedroom, ArtQuitect features a showroom with the work of outstanding designers with a complete finished bathroom: a custom-made proposal to a potential client. In this store, it would seem the authors of the products have more say in the interior design than the interior designers themselves. The intrigue of this store may lie in a clearly open cultural dimension and small concessions to the drama of creative presentation.