“We envisioned our future to be set up like this. We wanted our own studio, and we needed space.” Masaaki Higashi, architect and resident Looking to upsize from their condo in Barcelona’s Gràcia district, Masaaki Higashi and Esther Mir had their eye on a two-story apartment that was wedged at the back of a former printing warehouse next door. But when it turned out that the two spaces—partially attached, partially separated by a courtyard—were listed together, they had to reconsider.
“It was rundown, dark, and divided,” recalls Masaaki of his first impression of the warehouse, the ground floor of a multistory apartment building. But after some thought, Masaaki, a Japanese-born architect, and Esther, an artist from Minorca, realized that owning the combined 2,700 square feet would allow them to headquarter…
