Hotel Somiatruites, Igualada

Starting with a 19th – century tannery located in Igualada’s iconic Rec district, Xavier Andrés designed the Somiatruites hotel. The architectural proposal draws on industrial aesthetics, seeking an understanding of the heritage of its surroundings through the design and materials used. The latticework covering the windows of the rooms is remin iscent of the tannery’s drying frames, and the interior design, with leather as a decorative element and local woods as a covering and decoration, reminds us of how this space was used over a century ago. However, Xavier Andrés has gone one step further to combine the industrial past with the district’s origins, orchards, due to its proximity to the Anoia River. This is why the Somiatruites hotel’s roof has a 400 m 2 garden, which provides thermal isolation, and provides the restaurant with the most local ingredients possible. In a desire to transform the hotel into much more than a place to sleep, the rooms are intended to be a convertible living room where guests can get together, have breakfast, work, or rest. To achieve this flexibility, Andrés designed rooms with a retractable bed that can be raised to the ceiling thanks to a manual mechanism, leaving a spacious open area to make rooms versatile.

What makes this project one-of-a-kind?
Located on and iconic district, the Somia truites project — which includes the restaurant and the hotel — is committed to sustainable architecture, based on self – sufficiency. On the one hand, in terms of energy, the rooftop garden provides thermal insulation, and on the other, it produces vegetables that make up a good part of the raw material needed for the dishes prepared in the restaurant. The plants are irrigated with the district’s groundwater, and leftover vegetables and bread from the restaurant are fed to the chickens, which in turn produce fertilizer for the garden. Thus, Andrés has created a closed – loop system th at produces zero waste.