Here’s a good example of making a ductless mini split look blend in with one of the most historic homes in the world.
On a recent holiday trip to Spain, Carini Heating, Air and Plumbing Vice President of Marketing Doug Cooper toured the grounds of Park Guell, a public park managed by the City Council of Barcelona, and a national cultural site on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The building of Park Guell was funded by Catalan businessman Eusebio Guell Bacigalupi (1846-1918), and work began in the year 1900. Guell commissioned the design and development project of Park Guell to Antoni Gaudí, the world-renowned architect and designer, whose works alone have become the centerpiece for a significant part of the tourism industry in Barcelona. The Gaudi House Museum in Park Guell opened on September 28, 1963, after it had been the residence of Antoni Gaudí from 1906 until the end of 1925. Today it stands as a private collection open to the public, providing glimpses of Gaudi’s life through his furnishings and documentation of his daily routines.
“Touring the Gaudi house is kind of a surreal, like going back in time but feeling like Gaudi, the master, is still living there,” said Cooper. “His design ideas are both classic and modern. While touring the Gaudi residence, I looked out at a balcony off of one of the main rooms in the house, and saw a modern ductless mini split condenser, painted a complementary color to the outside walls.”
Cooper shared that mini split technology could be seen all over Spain, with outdoor condensers plastered by the hundreds on the outside walls of apartment buildings, businesses and government offices. “You understand that it’s probably cost prohibitive to install modern central air conditioning and heating systems to old European buildings while keeping the character of the vintage architecture intact. But from the hodgepodge look of mini split condensers wherever you look, it seems like there must be no regulations in countries like Spain that dictate where an outdoor unit can be placed. We often bemoan the fact that our permitting and regulations are so stringent in the United States, but I’d personally rather have these stronger regulations than see the kind of “mini-split blight” that infects such beautiful buildings that in many cases are hundreds of years old.”
Some other examples of Fujitsu Mini Splits in Spain
Mini Split condenser on one of the buildings of the historic Hospital de Santa Creu i Sant Pau
Not a very good example of a mini split condenser on a pretty Spanish balcony