Preserving and enhancing the industrial essence of a place by adapting it to new needs, creating a balanced combination of old and new, historical and contemporary. With this approach, the Spanish studio ARQOH Arquitectos has developed the project for the former Royal Textile Factory in Brihuega, a small municipality in Spain an hour deep from Madrid, in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha.

The building – an old industrial structure dating back to the 18th century – has been completely redeveloped and converted into a five-star luxury hotel with modern facilities for the well-being and relaxation of guests. 

The Spanish studio paid particular attention to the choice of materials for the acoustic improvement of the restaurant area, a construction characterised by brick and masonry walls and a glass dome that is not very well suited to the logic and sound absorption needs of a high-decibel space such as that dedicated to the restaurant.

It was therefore necessary to identify materials consistent with the hotel's standing, with the acoustic requirements that emerged during the design phase and with the curvature of the walls. In this context, Diasen materials appeared, in the eyes of the architects involved in the design, as the congenial solution to hold functionality, taste and beauty together. 

The curvature of the walls and the need for sound absorption made the use of Diathonite Acoustix⁺ cork-based biophilic and sound-absorbing mortar appropriate and congenial. Its versatile nature, the possibility of applying it by spraying with thicknesses of just a few centimetres and the possibility of creating a uniform surface without cracks made it possible to achieve excellent results. The acoustic improvement system was completed with a water paint, also produced by Diasen, which does not occlude porosity, gives the walls a pleasant appearance and maintains the sound-absorbing capacity ensured by the bio-mortar.