retro cocktail bar with multi-chrome lighting and curved steel hides behind barcelona focacceria

ISERN SERRA CONCEALS RETRO COCKTAIL BAR BEHIND FOCACCERIA

Designed by Isern Serra for hospitality group Grupo La Confitería (led by Lito Baldovinos and Enric Rebordosa), Focacha is a speakeasy cocktail bar situated at Carrer Tuset 17 in Barcelona. The venue pays programmatic and aesthetic homage to the city’s 1960s and 1970s intellectual counterculture, the ‘gauche divine,’ and night-life figure Oriol Regàs, founder of the historic Bocaccio club. Concealed behind a traditional focacceria storefront designed by Pichy Glass, patrons access the venue through an operable refrigerator door, transitioning from a vernacular culinary retail interior into an immersive two-zone lounge modeled after Verner Panton’s 1968 Visiona installation.

CHROMATIC bar interiors PAY HOMAGE TO VERNER PANTON’S VISIONA

The interior layout, developed by designer Isern Serra, divides into two distinct spatial volumes. The initial bar area is wrapped in continuous carpeting across the floor, walls, and ceiling, establishing a monomaterial envelope referencing Verner Panton’s 1968 Visiona installation. At the center of the room, a curved stainless-steel bar features rounded edge profiles that catch and redistribute ambient reflections. Surrounding the counter, seven distinct seating modules transition across a calibrated chromatic gradient from yellow to crimson and deep blue. Along the perimeter, curvilinear niches recessed into the upholstered walls accommodate both functional back-bar bottle shelving and secluded, low-slung banquette seating. Multi-Lite pendants by GUBI suspend directly overhead, illuminating the metallic work surfaces while highlighting the contrast between the reflective steel counter and the dense, sound-dampening textile surfaces.

DOMED DJ LOUNGE INTEGRATES SCENOGRAPHIC LIGHTING design

The second spatial volume hosts the DJ room, creating a Retro-Futuristic setting. A circular portal cuts through the carpeted wall plane, transitioning into the adjoining music and DJ lounge. Centered under an organic vaulted dome, the volume explores Space Age aesthetics through fluid geometry and enveloping surfaces. Scenographic lighting systems are concealed within circular ceiling apertures and perimeter wall openings, allowing the light temperature and color spectrum to shift dynamically in response to musical tempo. Period-specific luminaires anchor the perimeter seating arrangements, including Louis Poulsen Panthella floor lamps, &Tradition Flowerpot VP2 pendants, and Wire Stool VP11 units, while a central Dana lamp by Tacchini acts as a sculptural focal point beneath the plaster canopy.

project info:

name: Focacha | @focacha.bcn
designer: Isern Serra | @isernserra

team leaders: Aasheen Mittal, Aran Escudero

graphics: Lo Siento Estudio

client: Grup Confiteria | @grupconfiteria

location: Barcelona, Spain

photographer: Salva López | @salvalopez

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