Barcelona-born Eduardo Alié Zanini spent his post-grad years traveling throughout Europe, living and working in cities like Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest before returning home in 2007. With an education in both economics and real estate, he formed real estate development and ownership firm KKH Group with former colleagues Josep María Farré and Jordi Bono. In 2014, they added KKH Property Investors to the company, building a portfolio of luxury hotels, residences, and retail stores.
But it’s his time spent around the globe that largely informs his work. “We try to bring all the things we love from other cities around the world to Barcelona,” explains Zanini. Take the “awful” office building in Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella neighborhood, which KKH purchased in 2014 and helped transform into the new Barcelona EDITION. “When I first saw it, I envisioned what this building could be,” he says. “I had enjoyed staying in the Mondrian Los Angeles and the Delano in Miami, so we decided to bring something like that to Barcelona.”
Zanini knew from the beginning this meant a luxury lifestyle hotel, complete with a strategically designed nightclub, cocktail bar, and sky bar that the city didn’t currently offer. A meeting in Berlin sold KKH on Ian Schrager’s vision for the EDITION brand. “Ian, to me, is truly innovative,” says Zanini. He signed with Marriott in 2016, hiring local architects and frequent collaborators Carlos Ferrater and Xavier Martí to revive the outdated building, and local designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán to handle the interiors. Instead of building a rooftop bar “like everybody else in Barcelona,” he says, they intentionally built the Roof one level down, losing guestrooms in the process but gaining the ability to construct a removable glass enclosure, ensuring the versatile venue could be used year-round.
The same forward-thinking ethos holds true in Zanini’s other upcoming projects, including a Mandarin Oriental-branded residence that is housed in a 20-story tower on the famed Passeig de Gràcia, a height that’s almost unheard of in central Barcelona (new builds in the city can’t exceed seven stories). Snagging the existing skyscraper allowed Zanini to build 34 units, a gym, spa, lobby, outdoor space, and meeting rooms, along with an annex that will serve as the flagship showroom and office for Spanish car manufacturer SEAT, which will open its doors in 2019. The pinnacle penthouse will see a sophisticated design by famed British architect John Pawson, while the remaining residences and common areas will be brought to life by London-based studio Muza Lab.
It’s not just tourists who notice the change. “People [living in the city] say, ‘This is what we’ve been missing,’” shares Zanini. “Everything from the level of service to the particular amenities is not common here.” This sense of novelty also extends to the architecture and design. Strict city regulations mean Zanini has to get creative with the existing infrastructure. “Most apartment buildings have very small façades and then extend a long way to the back of the lot toward an inner courtyard,” he explains. “We are building them the other way around, with a lot of façade and a lot of views, making them open.”
With projects in the works in Budapest and Madrid, Zanini is perhaps most excited about a hotel he’s developing in downtown Ibiza. The 70-room property will boast an expansive sky bar, private club, and restaurant with guillotine doors that fully open onto the wide, pedestrian thoroughfare. Slated to open in March 2020, the luxury lifestyle concept, which marks another collaboration with both Ferrater and Rosa-Violán, is particularly special for the developer. “Ibiza is where I spent many of my summers as a kid.
“[I love] the art of creating,” he continues, adding that he is very hands on, especially when it comes to layout and design. “Not only the shape of a new building, or its façade—it’s about creating a new way of living in a space.”
