Joyful Spaces: Jasper Sanders, Space Disco, Ibiza – Jasper Sanders+ Partners
Outside our homes, the commercial spaces we inhabit daily should do more than just function – they should enrich our lives and spark joy. Our new Joyful Spaces series will form a collection of inspiring spaces, chosen by designers and professionals who share their personal connections to the places that brighten their days.
Each article in this series highlights a personally significant commercial space, exploring its history, design, and emotional resonance through the eyes of the contributor. By uncovering the stories behind these spaces, we hope to celebrate the environments that uplift and inspire us.
This new series continues with a Joyful Space chosen by Jasper Sanders, Founder & Director at Jasper Sanders + Partners. In his own words Jasper shares why Space Disco, Ibiza delivers a unique sensory space which extends far beyond it’s four walls.
Space Disco, Ibiza
‘When we think of commercial spaces, cafés, shopping centres or office buildings often come to mind. But among these structured environments lies a different kind of commercial zone, one fuelled by light, sound, movement and joy: the disco.
The disco is where commerce meets culture. You buy entry, drinks, fashion, even identity, but what you truly come for is joy. The bassline. The dazzle light show. The shared euphoria of strangers moving in sync. This is one of the purest sensory experiences, built within a commercial frame, yet offering something deeply human.
Unlike other commercial settings, discos are not designed for utility, they’re designed for emotion. They are built entirely around escape, energy, connection. Architecture, light, sound, and even economics converge to create a temporary playground for a night.
In 1986, I was sixteen, on holiday in Ibiza, and so happen to be there for Space Disco’s opening night. I didn’t know it then, but that experience would shape my understanding of what joyful space really means, and influence me throughout my forty-year design career.
Space Disco wasn’t about ego or opulence. It wasn’t even really about the architecture, although Ramón Guirao’s open-plan design created a canvas for the extraordinary. What mattered was how it made you feel. The smell of dry ice, unlike any I’ve experienced since. The sound system so loud your organs would vibrate. Low, sultry light. Dancers on podiums like mythical creatures – half Rio carnival, half sci-fi dream.
This was the ’80s. No stage-facing DJ worship. Just movement. Mystery. Optimism. Colour. You weren’t there to be seen, you were there to feel. To dissolve into rhythm. To belong. Even the burger van outside became part of the ritual. Refuelling at the end of the night but also closure. A final note in a symphony of joy.
As a designer, I return to Space Disco as the archetypal benchmark for joyful space. We design with scent, sound, rhythm, and emotion and aim to create experiences where people don’t just exist, but feel, where joy is effortless.
When design gets joy right, it can become something spiritual and a memory that doesn’t just last for one night, but far into the future.’
Jasper Sanders, Founder & Director at Jasper Sanders + Partners. In his own words Jasper shares
Jasper Sanders is the Founder and Director of interior design studio Jasper Sanders + Partners. The Manchester-based business was founded in 2013 and, over the last decade, has established itself as a leading and award-winning space innovation studio. The studio’s principal work sector is commercial residential, incorporating BTR, Co-Living and PBSA interiors, with a strategy of serving to define market-leading brand identities and interiors. From childhood, Jasper had a desire to reinvent buildings and make them better, following a visit a visit to an empty building shell with his father – an estimator for a construction company – which sparked an early interest in the potential for re-imagining building interiors. His philosophy, deeply embedded in the culture and design thinking of the practice, reflects a commitment to innovation and the reinvention of architecture from the inside out.