Hotel Plácido y Grata

The project

Plácido y Grata is a four-star boutique hotel at number 4 Calle Monsalves, in the historic centre of Seville. The Barcelona studio Your Living Space, led by architect Marta Santana and industrial design engineer Carlota Ruiz, worked with architect Kiran Vasnani to restore a ruined three-storey manor house and turn it into a 15-room hotel arranged around a large courtyard. It opened in September 2021.

The house is in the regionalist style, dates from the late 19th century and was rebuilt in 1914. It is listed in the Special Protection Plan for the Historic Centre of Seville, which required the façade, the entrance hall (zaguán), the main staircase and the courtyard to be preserved. The project keeps the original structure and layout, and that condition shaped the plan: no two rooms are alike, because each one adapts to the existing floor plan. According to the hotel, one of the biggest challenges was placing rooms in the first bay, which is also protected, and fitting technical lighting and air conditioning while respecting the original timber beams.

Beyond the restored main door and the original iron grille, a sequence of arcades on marble columns leads to the courtyard. Besides the rooms, the hotel includes spaces that are also open to the city: a specialty coffee shop, a cocktail bar opening onto the courtyard, a multipurpose room and La Tienda de Plácido y Grata. The rooms —standard, superior, deluxe and suites— occupy the first and second floors and face either the rear courtyard or the Monsalves façade; those overlooking the street keep their timber ceiling beams.

The courtyard keeps the original fountain and a cobbled floor that, according to the hotel, makes you feel you are still in the street. Access to the rooms around it runs behind a Flexbrick ceramic lattice that lets the courtyard show through, encourages natural ventilation and casts a play of light and shadow along the walkways. Planting plays a central role: the designers remembered the fig tree that had taken over the ruined house and wanted plants to have a strong presence in the new building. The landscape design is by Marta Puig de la Bellacasa, who intertwines star jasmine and ornamental vine on a diamond-pattern tension-cable trellis in the courtyard, and uses white terracotta pots with succulents and dwarf palms on the mezzanine.

The studio set out to create timeless, minimalist and functional interiors that sit alongside the period architecture, with wood as the common thread. The inspiration comes from their trips to Scandinavia; in the designers' words, they wanted to combine the Scandinavian way of living with the good weather and joy of the south. Contemporary Scandinavian pieces are combined with classic 1950s furniture, French lamps from the same decade, designs by Le Corbusier and 1960s lighting by Miguel Milá, with brands such as &Tradition, DCW, Ferm Living, Fredericia, Menu, Muuto, Santa & Cole, Skagerak and String Furniture.

On the top floor, the roof terrace is reserved for guests: a sun deck with loungers, an outdoor shower and a pool, with planting also designed by Marta Puig de la Bellacasa and views over the rooftops of the historic centre.

According to the hotel, the restoration respects the protected heritage areas and includes water-saving taps, automation and control of the building services to improve energy efficiency, and private parking with electric vehicle charging.