ARCHITECTURE SERIES: LA FÁBRICA

‘I would never drag anyone to La Fábrica if I wasn’t sure they would be well received’, she says cocking her head, as if she were explaining something obvious. ‘Ricardo hates etiquette, protocol. His sense of hospitality is closer to the desert Bedouins than to the stupid codes of bourgeois luxury. This is a gathering place where people live, work, and debate with passion. Sometimes all at the same time’. She takes my hand, we pass through a big iron gate and she pulls me towards a courtyard leading into the castle. ‘Don’t be silly’, she says.
‘A guy like you is welcome in a place like this’.

—Jordi Labanda

For the second instalment in our series of books devoted to architects and the houses they build, readers are transported to the fringe of Barcelona and deep into the labyrinth known as La Fábrica—the former cement factory and monumental home of Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill. The book offers a new perspective on this world-renowned architectural masterpiece: with a short story set in 1980s Barcelona, the writer and illustrator Jordi Labanda narrates an evening spent at the Bofill residence, while Apartamento founder Nacho Alegre contributes original interior and exterior photography.