Sandra Tarruella designed Casa Cacao, the new boutique hotel with a chocolate preparation room founded by the Roca brothers

Casa Cacao is a new boutique hotel in Girona that belongs to the Roca family, from renowned Celler de Can Roca restaurant. The interior design project has been carried out by the award-winning studio Sandra Tarruella Interioristas. So they explain us,

Jordi Roca began working with chocolates from different origins; he made them in very diverse forms and flavors in their elaboration process, until when he decided to take another step and start a new creative process by rediscovering cocoa. CASA CACAO is born from this passion and the will to open a boutique hotel in Girona.

Sandra Tarruella Interioristas has been in charge of the interior design project. The project is based on the intention of having the chocolate preparation room visible from the street level, from where guests can learn about the whole process of making chocolate. From the handling of cocoa sacks, until its completion with the wrapping of chocolates, tablets or other elaborations .

In addition, Casa Cacao is also a 15-key boutique hotel that will be located in a renowned building in Girona, the old “la esperanza” clinic of the 1960s, located in Catalunya Square.

Both the location and years of the building, as well as the design of a chocolate factory led us to the origin of the concept. Inspired in its aesthetics by candy and chocolate shops of the time, materials and tonality of typical wrappers found in these products, but from a current and appropriate vision to address this double project.

On the ground floor there is the preparation room, the hotel entrance, a chocolate shop and a product packaging and tasting room. The suites are located on the upper floors, and on the rooftop level, there is a landscaped terrace overlooking the old city quarters, where breakfast is served.

The hotel needed to have a common aesthetic with both the Celler de Can Roca and the boutique concept of this proposal. To achieve this, we opted for noble materials, high quality finishes, a subtle and elegant aesthetic in harmony with the old days and current times. The reception of the hotel, the shop and even the preparation room have a continuous ceiling made of walnut timber slats and continuous terrazzo floorings in tone with the wall finishes done in limeplaster. And following this same aesthetic line, we have placed classic design furniture and pieces specially designed for the space.

The hotel has a cozy reception placed between two partitions finished in raw steel and glass to enhance the views towards the two adjacent rooms. On one side, the shop where visitors can see and purchase the finished product, and on the other side, the chocolate preparation room with its busy activity.

A reception counter finished in walnut wood and bush hammered stone has been designed with rounded and smooth shapes. The glass divider that separates it from the shop, has a product display made in walnut marquetry, which functions as both a storage space for the reception area and product display for the shop, where visitors can see the chocolates being displayed from everywhere.

On the shop, a rounded edge counter finished in walnut wood has been placed, as well as some central display furniture pieces found at an antique furniture shop. The finished product chamber is visible from the shop through a glass window.

The bar cacao is the chocolate tasting area. It is located in the double-height room where the product is packaged. The furniture has been resolved in a way that is aesthetically integrated with this process: The storage shelves of packaging and crockery, display cabinet in light birch wood and glazed tile, and communal tables and high bars suitable for fast service.

The counter incorporates an interchangeable surface made of different materials, heights, crystals and urns to display the product that may be ordered at the bar. The great height is enhanced by a set of glass lamps and suspended tracks. It is a very practical, fresh, young and tidy space reminiscent of candy factories of the time, regarding simple finishes and light colors.

The preparation area is divided into different rooms marked by the chocolate manufacturing process. From the entrance in Plaza Catalunya, where bags of cocoa beans - from different origins - are carried inside the building, and are stored in visible wooden shelves at the most brutalist room of the process chain. This space has a walnut wood ceiling that continues through the chocolate preparation room, where cocoa is processed until it becomes chocolate, all placed in a more industrial space using colored ceramic tiles and stainless-steel finishes. The room is completed with an industrial lamp with a warm light temperature.

The vertical communication of the hotel is done through the elevator room, finished in walnut wood with rounded edges, and by the main staircase of the building, that has maintained all its original elements unified in neutral and pleasant tones, where a three-colored rug has been incorporated to dress and soften the transit area.

Each of the hotel's keys is accessed through a corridor with a wool carpet framed on the flooring, walls with lime-wash paint and matt white enamel, which with the use of uplights, it intensifies the texture difference between the lime -based finish and the homogeneity of the white enamel. The walnut slats on the ceiling reminds visitors of the ground floor materials. The entrance to the rooms is done with a black burnt wood paneling, where both the door and the opening system are integrated.

For the design of the hotel keys we have worked together with Anna Payet, so that guests feel at home, providing warmth in the complements and the care in the details. The bespoke furniture for these rooms, the materials and coatings used, are noble, which brings elegance, soberness and warmth to the whole set.

The space is neutral in a very dull light color thanks to the type of paint applied to the walls, exposed beams and ceramic slabs that give the space plenty of height. One of the four walls is finished in natural oak wood, from where guests can access the bathroom, and when the two pivot doors are open, the sense of dimension of the room is extended, thanks to the reflection of the large circular mirror, integrating the bathroom space to the bedroom.

The elements are designed in a very simple way, but with noble materials, such as the bed board made in tubular raw steel, which gives the feeling that the piece of leather is simply placed on it. White linens, a set of cushions in different colors in linen, and a virgin wool plaid by the brand Teixidors are used to dress the bed. The furniture piece holding the bar and safe box, has been resolved in a classic way, using grained wood that references to a new classic. The velvet sofa, finished in a pearl tone, and the leather and walnut wood armchair are framed with a rug in two neutral tones with a perimeter frame.

The lighting, resolved with warm spotlights on the ceiling, is complemented with other indirect lights using classic design lamps. The natural light coming through windows is sifted with linen sheers, which in some rooms are framed and tensioned using raw steel frames, and in other rooms, it simply gives the sensation that they are hung on the curtain rod, with the horizontal stitch pattern - in black overlock - repeat the rhythm of the raw steel frames of the first ones mentioned.

On the top floor there is the garden terrace, the breakfast room under a porch, and the kitchen. For these areas, the original roof made of wooden beams and aged ceramic roof tiles have been maintained. From the small bar room with a communal table, guests can have a coffee while watching all the kitchen activity through a large opening. All spaces can be opened completely towards the terrace, from where guests can admire the wonderful views of the city while having breakfast, in a natural, open setting.

CASA CACAO, GIRONA
Creative Director: Sandra Tarruella, Ricard Trenchs
Project Leader: Olga Pajares
Collaborators: Anna Torndelacreu, Adriana Camps, Nuria Martinez, Ana Blanco
Photography: Meritxell Arjalaguer

Source: Sandra Tarruella Interioristas
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