How would you describe your connection with La Ricarda?
When we were children, many of our games involved building houses and huts. It was a way of learning how to organize our lives and our environment. This game also had a very real side to it, one that was very vivid for my siblings and for me: the house that our parents planned and built jointly with the architect Antonio Bonet Castellana at La Ricarda —a site with deep family ties for us.
Is your interest in architecture directly related to your parents’ house?
As José Saramago said, “the child does not see the landscape; he is simply in the landscape.” We grew up with the house. In a sense, it was our seventh sibling.
When did you decide to devote your efforts to the conservation of the house?
One day, after our parents passed away, we found ourselves in the front line. What could we do? What we had was more —much more— than a family home. That was our conclusion after reviewing and reading all the documents our parents had kept. To that we brought our own memories, in addition to the photographs by Inés Bertrand Mata and the films by Ricardo Gomis. Then came specific observations from architecture scholars and interior designers who visited the house. That was how I gradually constructed my narrative for the guided tours, with contributions from the family and also from the experts.
What led up to your hospitality towards bulthaup?
When we received a request from bulthaup to hold an event here, we wondered whether it would be asking too much of the house. But the request came from someone who loved this work designed by Antonio Bonet and had been here many times, the architect Arturo Frediani.
We were quite familiar with the bulthaup brand, because Inés, the eldest of the Gomis siblings, has a bulthaup kitchen in her main residence in Madrid and another one in her family house in Torres de Segre, in Lleida. We enjoy both thoroughly!
Organizing an event at La Ricarda was one thing; doing so for as many people as bulthaup wanted to gather here was a different matter altogether. But with such a careful, attentive team—Andrea Weirich, Ivan Cuní, and, last but not least, Jordi Vilà and his fantastic staff—we were able to organize it and attend to all the necessary details.
This has been our third bulthaup event at La Ricarda. We hope to host many more in the future, as long as the house remains in the Gomis Bertrand family.
Many thanks to bulthaup for placing its trust in us!
