Black-stained wood partitions meet time-worn tile floors inside this Valencia apartment, which has been overhauled by Francesc Rifé Studio.
Set within La Finca Roja ? a red-brick residential block in Valencia's Jesús neighbourhood that dates back to 1929 ? the R Apartment has been re-designed by Francesc Rifé Studio to feature a mix of old and new elements.

"The history of the place and its previous lives have played an important role in its new design and configuration,"said the studio, which is based in Barcelona.
"The first part of our work was to preserve the raw essence of the space while eliminating its most recent and unnecessary materials."

Maintaining the medley of patterned floor tiles and exposed ceilings, the studio has tweaked the layout of the apartment so that it's now dominated by an open-plan living area with blackened-wood partitions.
"The impartiality of this [black] colour contributes to the fact that any historical evidence is remarkable," explained the studio.
"The space was already very open, although we wanted to do it more by connecting previously separate rooms."
"From the previous distribution we marked the new one, making this more versatile," it added.

A full-height boxy volume crafted from black-stained poplar wood creates a sense of separation between the entrance hallway and the kitchen, which has been completed with shiny steel cabinetry.
Blackened wood has also been used to make a low...