The weird and wonderful rules in Barcelona

Melbourne-born Suzanne Wales orchestrates design-focused tours of the Catalan capital that reveal its creative and architectural soul.

Architect Antoni Gaudi’s apartment building Casa Mila.

Suzanne Wales strolled around Barcelona on a recent morning with the carefree air of a tourist. She sampled citrusy fragrances at Arquinesia, admired quirky sculptures at Moco Museum, and slipped on a jaunty chapeau at the eclectic Loreto store in the El Born district.

But Wales is no sightseer. The Melbourne-born resident, who adopted the Spanish city as her home three decades ago, orchestrates design-focused tours of Barcelona that reveal its creative and architectural soul. “We offer a deeper understanding of why the city looks the way it does, and that touches on politics, historical events and local culture,” she says.

Spain’s second city is one of the world’s busiest holiday destin­ations, with 12 million visitors in 2019 and more expected this year.

Museu del Disseny. Picture: Getty Images

A small but growing number of them are looking for nuanced insights beyond the Ramblas.

Wales’s bespoke tours whiz from ornate mansions to the revamped waterfront, old-school flea markets to cutting-edge galleries, emerging neighbourhoods to time-honoured areas like the Eixample.

“Not only does it have most of the Modernista architecture, including Gaudi’s landmark works, but the best hotels and design shops,” she says.

Growing up in southeastern Melbourne in an age when teenagers plastered their bedroom walls with pictures of ’80s heart-throbs Matt Dillon and Rob Lowe, Wales pinned up shots of Antoni Gaudi’s architecture instead.

Arriving in the city in 1992, in time for the galvanising Olympic Games, she began writing for design publications. “Barcelona was on a cultural high and this was reflected in the creative fields, from fashion to interiors and all the design disciplines,” she says. Together with Irishman Brian Gallagher, Wales launched Barcelona Design Tours seven years ago. “Our clients are mostly creative types interested in architecture, urbanism and interior design,” she says.

Palace of the Baron of Quadras. Picture: Getty Images

Lately, she has added gastronomic stops, including 1970s-era diner Flash Flash. “Food and design interplay with each other here.”

Next up, Wales is releasing a book, Made in Spain, that explores some of her artisanal obsessions. The project is not an almanac of “pretty things” she says. “I wanted to give context into the how and why an artisan works in a certain medium or makes a certain product in a particular ­region.”

For more design-inspired travel ideas, turn to the April issue of Travel + Luxury on Friday