Work in a historic building in Barcelona

Núñez i Navarro has restored several historic buildings in Barcelona as offices that meet all the requirements to house a company.

Workspaces in Barcelona have undergone constant transformation over the last 30 years. After all, everything evolves: phones, cars, televisions... Offices too, which have shifted from having rooms full of partition panels between desks to open and well-lit spaces, promoting a more cross-sectional layout within the company itself, as well as the flow of information between departments.

This evolution has also been experienced on the exterior of offices, that is, in buildings. Thus, from repurposing empty apartments in private residential blocks in the 80s and 90s, the turn of the new millennium saw a shift to large business areas, such as 22@ or Plaza Europa, with impersonal buildings where offices can be rented to suit, depending on the size of the company.

Halfway between one model and the other, some multinationals choose to rent historic buildings that are emblematic of the city. The advantages are numerous: the prestige and visibility of linking their brand to a building with history, and thus to the city, a central or well-connected location, or the ability to gather the entire staff in one place, to name a few examples.

Honoring their claim to look back in order to move forward, the Núñez i Navarro Group has restored some of Barcelona's historic buildings as office spaces which, after their rehabilitation, meet all the essential requirements to house the headquarters of a 21st-century company: accessibility, sustainability, connectivity, energy efficiency... these are details that have been considered in each and every one of the Group's projects.

A clear example is the Casa Lleó i Morera, an ideal place to establish a work center. Located on the main commercial axis of the city, Passeig de Gràcia with Consell de Cent, this modernist building exudes art on all sides. Designed by Lluís Doménech i Montaner, Casa Lleó i Morera is considered one of the finest modernist works due to the intense artistic contribution of the best craftsmen of the time. The majesty of the building is already appreciated from the outside thanks to its beautiful facade, full of sculptural reliefs, ceramics, and ironwork.

Following the rehabilitation carried out by the Group, the building is now fully adapted for use as offices. It offers concierge service during business hours and an elevator with access to all floors. It also has a commercial space, a grand floor with an interior terrace, three floors, and a penthouse with an impressive terrace featuring a small temple and views of Passeig de Gràcia. An unbeatable location that connects it with the city and will provide the prestige, visibility, and recognition of a modernist building as well as functionality fully adapted to the day-to-day of an office.

Those same values are what the tech company Accenture found when, at the beginning of this year, it moved to the Andreu tower, La Rotonda, to make this unique building its corporate headquarters in Barcelona. As we were able to discover during the open house of the iconic modernist building, the multinational is making the technology of tomorrow a reality today. They were the first, but not the only ones to join their story with that of the emblematic building: Nike, the Gougrouz group, and Duet Fit complete the list of tenants of La Rotonda. Anselmo Méndez, General Manager of the Duet group, did not hesitate to trust in the experience of Núñez i Navarro when choosing the new headquarters for Duet Fit: “The professionalism and the ease of negotiation we have experienced with them have been extraordinary at all times. Their premises stand out for their good maintenance and conservation, and moreover, they are usually well-located on main streets".

Another historic building that has been converted into offices is the Enric Cera Tower, a 20th-century mansion located just a few meters from Via Augusta, which has been fully restored while preserving the volume of this unique protected space. Its open-plan rooms and terraces charmed the Italian textile group Max Mara, which has recently moved out of its facilities in the Pedrosa Industrial Estate to relocate to this majestic building with views of Tibidabo and the Collserola mountain range.

The rehabilitation work of the Group continues, in projects that have already been completed such as the Can Trias de Bes farmhouse or the former Elisava School of Design, on Ample street, with which the firm continues to recover the city's memory.