Valencia…
is a city that never sleeps, known for its balmy climate, gothic cathedrals, golden beaches, bustling food markets, traditional cuisine and modernist architecture, including the futuristic masterpiece that is the City of Arts and Sciences by local architect, Santiago Calatrava. The city, named European Green Capital of 2024, also hosts Spain’s most riotous springtime festival, Las Fallas, which involves plenty of parades, fireworks and pyrotechnics. But Valencia, whose charm and character famously inspired legendary author Ernest Hemingway and Spain’s most celebrated Impressionist painter Joaquín Sorolla, also has a quieter, more reserved side. Bathed in bright Mediterranean sunshine 300 days of the year and invariably blessed with a cobalt blue skyline that turns into a blanket of pink and mauve come sunset, this is a city where natural light creates an ambience of calm and wellbeing.
According to…
local interior design practice, Francesc Rifé Studio, the playful manipulation of light, both natural and artificial, was a guiding visual force in this modern L-shaped apartment overlooking a church in a quiet pocket of the city. This luminosity – muted and hazy throughout – is part of the firm’s wider vision for the home, which its founder describes as tilted towards an ‘emotional aesthetic’, one that directly connects with the client’s own creative expression.
The client is the contemporary artist Antonia Ferrer, noted for her earthy, densely packed and layered monochromatic canvases that look like slabs of ancient stone or relics from an archeological dig. As a response to the artist’s creative output, the designers have treated her open plan apartment like an expansive canvas, utilizing tactile materials that nod to her tableaux, including light oak wood and sand blasted concrete, whose decorative tones and textures add their own sculptural narrative to this otherwise modern and minimalist home.
The manipulation…
of light creates colors and shadows that add their own density and energy to the living spaces. For example, venetian-blinds and long gauzy curtains create a soft, hazy glow that evokes a sense of warmth and comfort. More dramatic is a long tubular pendant lamp that runs the length of the lounge, creating a poetic stream of light dividing the oak beamed ceiling in two. Like sunlight streaming through a fissure, the lamp is a bespoke addition, and work of art in its own right.
The furniture…
in the lounge/dining area is also informed by the neutral tones of sand, stone and metal, as evidenced by a set of natural wood chairs by Blasco & Vila upholstered in a woven oatmeal-colored fabric and a modern domed Attollo table lamp in satin bronze, designed in 1977 by Vico Magistretti.
The use…
of wood to create horizontal and vertical repetitions, guiding the eye from ceiling to cabinetry to floor, is typical of the ‘geometric simplicity’ that has become a house signature at Francesc Rifé Studio. At the same time, the firm’s innovative use of light gently disrupts this stringent order, ensuring openness and an easy flow between rooms thanks to wide perspectives, a lack of doors and the use of light absorbing/light reflecting materials, including a profusion of stainless steel in the kitchen.
The designers…
have chosen a reductive approach to home accessories, choosing just a handful of striking furniture pieces to compliment Antonia Ferrer’s impactful textural artworks and concrete Vent sculptures. Key pieces include a slender Daphne Terra floor lamp by Lumina and a black RC Metal Lobby Chair, designed by the firm’s namesake founder, Francesc Rifé.
Two bedrooms…
on opposite sides of the apartment’s L-shaped layout, are intentionally pared down to create the perfect sleep zone – unfussy and decorated in a manner that whispers quiet luxury with almost no accessories. The only distraction is the panoramic view from the window which overlooks the local church’s typical blue and white domed roof, completing this purist home, so perfectly suited to an artist who says she is “inspired by the essential” and the simple “being of things”.
Tap the look…
Client: Antonia Ferrer @antoniaferrerstudio
Photography: Javier Márquez @javiermarquezphoto
Design: Francesc Rifé Studio @francescrifestudio
