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01 / The volcanic area of Garrotxa.
02 / The restaurant is
located in a wonderfullyrestored 15th century building.
01
A
narrow gap in a thick wall, ivy hanging from the roof – where is the door? Surrounded by the fragrance of rosemary and thyme, I discover a passage, slip through and find myself in a bare room without any windows or doors. A tall table, no computer, no pictures, no stairs: This is the reception area of Les Cols Pavellons. Judit Planella, the owner, greets me. This woman with large brown eyes immediately senses that the room has had an unusual effect on me. “As soon as our guests enter the reception area, they should be able to leave their everyday lives behind and discover a whole new world. We are an inn, not a hotel,” she says. “We don’t want to restrict ourselves with any categories or stars. Guests shouldn’t arrive with preconceived notions – they should be surprised.” I am indeed surprised, even overwhelmed, as I suddenly realise that everything that I thought I knew about hotels doesn’t apply here. We leave the reception area through a second gap in the wall and find ourselves in the garden of a Catalonian estate. Walking over fine volcanic stone and past steel posts, we reach a narrow walkway bordered by ultramodern cubes. The pavilions, I’m told. Somehow very surreal.
02
with rounded arches, warm sandstone. The contrast couldn’t be greater. “It all began with my husband’s estate,” explains Judit. “We first converted the restaurant in 2005.” In her sister-in-law Fina Puigdevall’s two-star restaurant guests dine in an atmosphere that makes them feel as if they were sitting in the middle of a garden. Architects with a knack for nature That was also the idea behind the accommodation. Together with internationally-renowned architects RCR1 from Olot, Judit and her husband Joaquim decided to experiment: “We originally wanted to build a country hotel or a few apartments, but each time we met with the architects it became clearer that we really wanted to create something entirely new – accommodation in, and together with, nature.” Here, nature is marked by the volcanic origins of the Garrotxa. Cone-shaped craters, warm springs – even today this region 120 kilometres northwest of Barcelona offers a very different kind of experience.
1
The firm unites Spanish architects Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem
and Ramón Vilalta, active since 1987 in the Spanish town of Olot (near Girona). In 2010 the architects were welcomed as honorary
I take in the wonderfully-restored 15th century building standing a stone’s throw away; windows
fellows by the American Institute of Architects for their “special importance for architecture and for society”.