MEAN* Studio Transforms Historic Barcelona Interior Into Wellness Club

Dubai-based MEAN* Studio has transformed the interior of a Barcelona protected residential building into a wellness club in the city's Eixample district. The project, Repeat Wellness Club, works with a space shaped by many previous alterations and retains key historic elements.

“Working within a protected building meant using the existing structure as the starting point, and uncovering coherence within its accumulated layers while giving the space a renewed sense of purpose,” Riyad Joucka, Founder of MEAN*, tells SceneHome.

The design draws on the proportions and contours of the human body, shaping how the space is organised and experienced and the relationship between rooms circulation and built form. It also informs curved geometries at key moments including walls thresholds and built in elements, supporting movement through the interior.

The arrangement of spaces reflects the activities housed within the club. At its centre, a reception area sits between the main Pilates studio and a coffee and healthy food counter operated by local brand Nudes. Further inside, sauna and cold plunge facilities are positioned alongside changing rooms, creating quieter areas away from the main circulation routes. Upstairs, treatment rooms for massage and infrared therapy share the mezzanine level with a second Pilates studio.

Curved forms appear throughout the interior, shaping plastered walls with rounded edges, softening transitions between rooms, and defining built-in elements such as seating niches, reception counters, and integrated storage. At thresholds, corners are eased, allowing one space to flow into the next without abrupt breaks. Repeated across different scales, these gestures create continuity between the club's studios, treatment rooms, and communal spaces.

Clay-plastered walls add texture and warmth, paired with continuous microcement flooring that unifies the different areas into a single surface. Overhead, a curved secondary skin wraps ceilings and columns, integrating lighting, air-conditioning, and other building services into a continuous architectural layer that softens the existing structural grid.

The building's historic Catalan vaults remain visible throughout the project. Finished in clay, the curved surfaces retain their original rhythm and depth, running across the ceiling of the interior. Linear lighting is set along the vaults, tracing their geometry and distributing light evenly across the space. The vaulted structure continues to anchor the interior and link the rehabilitation to the building's origins.

A rounded-square motif acts as a unifying element across the project. Developed at multiple scales, it appears in the staircase balustrade, furniture, and a handcrafted ceramic wall created in collaboration with Ceràmica Cumella. Repeated throughout the interior, the motif establishes a visual thread that links different spaces and functions.

One of the key interventions was the reconfiguration of the existing mezzanine. To accommodate a second Pilates studio, the structure was reinforced and enclosed, and new openings were inserted between existing columns to draw daylight deeper into the floor plan. These openings allow light to reach the lower-level studio and create visual connections between the two floors, revealing the thickness of the building's layered construction.

Wrapped in handcrafted ceramic tiles, the upper studio volume references Catalonia's long tradition of ceramic craftsmanship while expressing the contemporary additions within the historic interior. The same volume also accommodates integrated air-conditioning systems, consolidating technical infrastructure within the architectural form.

Completed in January 2026, Repeat Wellness Club is visible from the street through large storefront windows, where warm clay tones, ceramic surfaces, and curved forms sit within the preserved façade of the original structure.