Larianela

We live in a world where if it isn’t on the grid, it didn’t happen. Travel used to be about the grime under your fingernails and the smell of a wood-fired oven in a back alley. Now, for a significant portion of the population, it’s about the 'content.' Enter The Set Lab. Located on Ronda de la Universitat, a busy, exhaust-choked artery that connects the old city to the sprawling Eixample, this place is a temple to the modern ego. It’s an amusement center, sure, but it’s specifically a 'selfie museum'—a concept that would have made my grandfather throw his whiskey glass at the wall, yet here we are.

Walking in from the gray pavement of Barcelona, the transition is jarring. It’s like stepping through a portal into a high-budget music video or a particularly vivid hallucinogenic episode. There are no dusty artifacts here, no plaques explaining the Roman foundations of the city. Instead, you get fifteen or more rooms, each one a different flavor of technicolor artifice. One room might be a monochromatic explosion of pink; the next, an optical illusion that makes you look like you’re hanging from the ceiling of a classic Catalan apartment. It is unapologetically artificial, and in its own weird way, that’s its charm.

The experience is less about 'looking' and more about 'doing.' You see people here—mostly teenagers, influencers in the wild, and families looking to kill an hour—who are more focused than a diamond cutter. They’ve got the ring lights, the outfit changes, and the practiced pouts. There’s a ball pit, of course, because apparently, we all have a deep-seated psychological need to submerge ourselves in plastic spheres for the sake of a profile picture. There are bathtubs filled with gold coins, neon signs that scream existential platitudes, and mirrors that multiply your reflection into infinity. It’s a relentless barrage of pastel and strobe.

Is it 'authentic' Barcelona? Of course not. You won’t find the ghost of Gaudí here, and the only tradition being honored is the one where we document every waking second of our lives. But if you strip away the cynicism, there’s a genuine craft to the set design. The people behind The Set Lab understand light, color, and the specific geometry of a good photograph. They’ve built a playground for the 21st century. The staff are generally young, patient, and surprisingly adept at helping you find the right angle when your own creative vision fails you.

If you’re the type of traveler who wants to spend your afternoon in the dark recesses of a Gothic cathedral, The Set Lab will probably give you a migraine. But if you’re traveling with kids who are bored of architecture, or if you just want to lean into the absurdity of modern life and walk away with a dozen photos that make your life look significantly more colorful than it actually is, then it’s worth the price of admission. It’s a loud, bright, neon-drenched break from reality. Sometimes, after a long day of navigating the heavy history of this city, a dive into a pink ball pit is exactly the kind of mindless therapy you didn't know you needed. Just don't forget to charge your phone; a dead battery here is the ultimate tragedy.