Coworking Space in Baró de Viver

Synergics is an initiative that was born in Barcelona in 2016 in the neighborhood of Baró de Viver. The main objective of Synergics is to provide a workspace for freelancers or small companies in exchange for offering a few hours of their time to collaborate and participate in actions or projects that can have an impact on the social fabric and help the neighbors of this area of Barcelona, ​​which is hit by social inequalities and high unemployment rates. 

Since its inception, the initiative has been using 5 different spaces: two office spaces, two workshop spaces, and a meeting room. As a result of the pandemic, there has been an increase in requests for the use of these spaces, as the work environment is now more focused on remote work. To meet this need, Synergics had the opportunity to grow and use one more space. 

The new space was intended to function as a versatile space for conferences, courses, or presentations, as well as for meetings, usually for small groups or even for a single user making a video call. Before having this new space, the only available meeting room was usually reserved by a single person who used it for video conferences, resulting in a waste of resources as a very large meeting room remained occupied for long hours by just one user.

To address this problem, the new space has floor-to-ceiling curtains that allow users to divide the room into two independent spaces that can be used simultaneously, allowing for two meetings or video conferences in the same space without interference. These sound-absorbing curtains provide privacy and acoustic comfort to workers and their guests. 

When the curtains are folded, a single open space is created to accommodate larger groups or different activities.

The design is kept as simple as possible: the space is delimited by white and light-colored walls, and large floor-to-ceiling windows open the room to the adjacent street. The views from that street can also be blocked with curtains to ensure privacy when necessary. 

The floor remains continuous and homogeneous, giving the idea of a single open space, in contrast to the ceiling, which enhances the fragmentation of the room into smaller areas using different colors for each subspace, which, as if they were islands, are perceived as physically separate blocks, taking advantage of the interstitial spaces to hide the curtain rails. 

The colors are chosen to give a clearly differentiated appearance to each subdivision, allowing for a total transformation of the space when the curtains are moved, making the color blocks appear and disappear according to the arrangement of the partitions. The three chosen colors give the space an atmosphere reminiscent of Bauhaus buildings and infographics, appealing to the shared workspace environment and the ideals of the community, which are essential for Synergics.

Design And Project Direction: Albert Montilla