The existing fabric as the project's structure

The building stands near the Mercado de Colón. Its facades — ironwork, mouldings, stained glass — date from the late nineteenth century, when Valencia’s bourgeoisie was building with ambition and ornamental density. The proportions of those rooms, the height of the ceilings, the grain of the original ceramic floors: these are the starting conditions of the project, and the measure against which every new decision is tested.

GE Apartment, Valencia — the ornate early twentieth-century façade of the building on Calle Grabador Esteve

GE Apartment, Valencia — the flat before renovation, with its original hydraulic-tile floor, folding shutters and stained-glass transom

Around the protected elements

The protected elements are not the constraint. They are the structure. The renovation works around them: new plaster surfaces calibrated to the existing relief, bespoke joinery in warm timber that follows the room geometry without mimicking its decoration. Nothing is erased. Nothing is pastiche.

Each room is treated as a meeting point between the existing architecture and the new intervention. The distinction between the two periods remains legible — there is no attempt to dissolve one into the other. The relationship is one of acknowledged distance: the new elements know what they are adjacent to and behave accordingly.

GE Apartment, Valencia — a new plastered arch springing beside the restored ornamental cornice of the original ceiling

GE Apartment, Valencia — the dining room seen through the new arch, the original ceiling rosette above

GE Apartment, Valencia — dining room with a long dark table below the ornamental cornice, tall shutters opening to the balcony

GE Apartment, Valencia — living area with a cream sofa, a black leather lounge chair and a slender floor lamp

GE Apartment, Valencia — living room opening through folding shutters to the balcony, a stained-glass transom above the door

Furniture as extension of the architecture

The furniture was selected in close collaboration with the owners. Vintage pieces by Percival Lafer, Sergio Rodrigues, and Alvar Aalto sit alongside contemporary designs by Vincent Van Duysen; bespoke elements were developed as extensions of the architecture, in the same materials and at the same register.

These pieces are not neutral. They are chosen for their material weight and formal clarity — for the way they hold the room without dominating it. The apartment is furnished the way it is built: with precision and without excess.

GE Apartment, Valencia — the dining room at dusk, the new arch framing the sideboard and paired stone discs

GE Apartment, Valencia — dining table and chairs seen through the arch, below the original frieze and ceiling rosette

GE Apartment, Valencia — the oak kitchen with a marble worktop, an internal window framing the original ceiling and a stained-glass transom

GE Apartment, Valencia — detail of the oak kitchen joinery and its marble shelf

GE Apartment, Valencia — oak kitchen with a marble sink and splashback, a brass tap and integrated ovens under warm light

GE Apartment, Valencia — the oak kitchen by day, marble counter and sink with a brass tap, appliances flush in the joinery

Material consistency.

Materials are consistent throughout: travertine, lime plaster, wood, linen. The palette is warm and reduced. Stained glass filters the light from the street-facing rooms into something amber and diffused; the interiors shift character from morning to evening without the lighting scheme needing to do the work.

The wet areas maintain the same material logic as the main rooms. Stone continues from floor to wall without interruption; joinery details are resolved with the same precision as the architectural elements. There is no zone of the apartment where the criteria change.