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    Curves and colour blocking feature in JJ16 apartment by Lucas y Hernández-Gil

    Madrid studio Lucas y Hernández-Gil has completed a family home that makes the most of every inch, with details including a yellow storage wall, a corridor kitchen and a hidden closet.

    JJ16 is a three-bedroom apartment in Madrid’s Salamanca district, but until recently it had been used as an office.
    JJ16 is a three-bedroom apartment for a family of fourLucas y Hernández-Gil, a specialist in interior architecture, converted the property back into a residence for a family that includes a mother, three teenage children and their dog.
    The challenge was not only to make it feel like a home again but also to create space for everyone’s personality within the 165 square-metre footprint.
    The kitchen occupies a corridor space between the entrance lobby and the living roomThe designers achieved this by combining space-saving strategies with statement details, providing both functionality and character.

    “Everyone had a clear idea of what they needed, which translated directly into the spaces,” said studio founders Cristina Domínguez Lucas and Fernando Hernández-Gil Ruano.
    “Far from generating a conflict, different colours and materials give the house a richness, a harmonic heterogeneity,” they told Dezeen.
    The room is defined by shades of soft pink and greyOptimising JJ16’s layout was crucial but difficult given the irregularity of the floor plan.
    Lucas y Hernández-Gil’s strategy was to make every space, including the corridors, as useful as possible.
    The utility area also occupies a corridor spaceThe kitchen now occupies a connecting space between the entrance lobby and the living room, freeing up space at the front of the apartment for a spacious main bedroom.
    Meanwhile, the corridor leading to the main bathroom and the third bedroom incorporates a mini library and a utility area.

    Lucas y Hernández-Gil splits moods inside Madrid duplex apartment

    “The main challenge was the deep layout and long corridor,” said the architects.
    “We provided circulation with content by creating spaces within it. This turned out to be one of the best design decisions of the project.”
    A curved wall frames the main bedroomCurved partitions create variety within JJ16’s layout. The largest of these separates the living room from the main bedroom, but other curves can be found in the second bedroom and a shower room.
    Many spaces have their own colours, which contrast with the bright white tones that otherwise dominate the interior.
    The third bedroom is a twin room with a hidden walk-in closetThe bright yellow bookshelf wall is the most striking, while the adjacent kitchen offers a two-tone effect with shades of soft pink and grey, and matt chrome finishes.
    Bedrooms have a minimal feel, but they boast colourful dressing rooms and en-suites. Bright orange was chosen for the hidden walk-in closet, located in the twin third bedroom, while deep purple adds a luxury feel in the main bedroom.
    Patterned tiles feature in the bathroom and en-suite areasFloor surfaces provide more visual interest. Living spaces feature oak parquet, while bathrooms are all finished with patterned cement tiles.
    This bold approach to colour and texture is a common feature in the work of Lucas y Hernández-Gil, whose other recent projects include the sunset-inspired Naked and Famous bar and the stylish Casa A12.
    The main bathroom also features a curved shower room”The approach to colour is a constant in our design process,” said Lucas and Hernández-Gil Ruano.
    “It is about activating spaces and achieving a warm and joyful domestic atmosphere.”
    The photography is by Jose Hevia.
    Project credits
    Architecture: Lucas y Hernández-GilCollaborators: Lucía Balboa, María Domínguez, Sara Urriza

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    Studio Noju renovates curvy apartment in brutalist Torres Blancas tower

    Local firm Studio Noju has updated a two-storey Madrid apartment within the Torres Blancas high-rise with a renovation that remains “in constant dialogue” with the original apartment design.

    Designed in 1961 by architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíz, Torres Blancas is a 71-metre-high exposed concrete tower featuring cylindrical shapes that create bulbous balconies on its facade and curved rooms inside.
    Studio Noju renovated the largest apartment in Torres BlancasStudio Noju overhauled the 1040 unit – the brutalist building’s biggest apartment – to balance its history with contemporary design details, according to the firm.
    “Our interior design proposal for the apartment takes inspiration from the original ideas that the architect came up with for the building,” studio co-founder Antonio Mora told Dezeen.
    Recovered terrace space is characterised by green tilesA key part of the project involved expanding the apartment’s exterior area on the first floor from 15 to almost 80 square metres to create the amount of outdoor space that existed before multiple past renovations of the tower.

    This expansion added terraces that are characterised by curved floor-to-ceiling glazing and slatted crimson shutters. These open onto gleaming green ceramic tiles that take cues from 1960s interiors and form built-in benches, fountains and planters that follow the terraces’ meandering contours.
    Visitors enter at a semi-circular foyer”The outdoor spaces have been once again consolidated into a continuous terrace that follows the outline of the original plan,” explained Mora, who set up Studio Noju with Eduardo Tazón in 2020.
    “There is a constant dialogue between many of the solutions we have proposed in the interior design of the apartment with those proposed more than 50 years ago by Sáenz de Oiza.”
    White walls and ceilings create an airy open-plan first floorVisitors enter the apartment at a semi-circular foyer featuring Segovia black slate and wine-red panelling – the same materials used in the building’s communal areas.
    The open-plan ground floor is interrupted by snaking white structural walls, such as a partition in the living room that features repetitive circular openings.
    The kitchen was formed from a continuous countertopA continuous custom-made countertop with a subtle green hue forms the kitchen area, which includes a statement bulbous sink that echoes Torres Blancas’ cylindrical facade.
    Light reflects from the original glass-brick tinted windows and illuminates the smooth resin floor and metallic wall accents.
    Studio Noju salvaged an original brass banister for the staircaseWhite geometric treads create a floating staircase with an original polished brass banister that leads to the first floor. Upstairs, a sequence of bedrooms is characterised by oak ceilings that contrast with the bright white ceilings on the ground floor.
    Each bathroom is playfully colour-coded with individual mosaics of bright tiles, complete with sconce lights, mirrors and cabinetry that follow the rounded shapes found throughout the apartment.
    Each bathroom has colour-coded tiles”The [mosaic] material allowed us to solve all the elements of the bathroom such as shower areas, vanities, walls and floors, referencing a similar material strategy used in the original design,” said Mora.
    Adjacent to the main bedroom, the first-floor terrace includes a large green tile-clad outdoor bathtub cloaked in a sheer curtain, which is flanked by plants that were positioned to absorb the water produced by bathing.

    Casa Olivar is a Madrid apartment designed as a “sensorial refuge”

    “The element that we are most proud of is the feeling of a house-patio that has been recovered in the apartment,” reflected Mora.
    “The unit once again revolves around the exterior spaces, and these seem to blend with the interior through the curved traces of green tiles that enter and exit the living room and dining area,” added the architect.
    “Our biggest challenge was striking a balance between honouring the building, but at the same time imbuing the interior design with our language.”
    The first floor terrace features an outdoor bathtubStudio Noju showcased a similar colourful style in its debut project, which involved the renovation of an open-plan Seville apartment.
    Torres Blancas was among the buildings captured by photographer Roberto Conte in his series of brutalist buildings in Madrid.
    The photography is by José Hevia. 

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    Casa Olivar is a Madrid apartment designed as a “sensorial refuge”

    Designers Matteo Ferrari and Carlota Gallo have transformed a traditional two-storey apartment in Madrid, Spain, into a tranquil home for themselves featuring a pared-back palette of natural materials and crafted details.

    Casa Olivar is located in a typical corrala – a type of apartment building found in the old parts of Madrid, where housing units are accessed from external covered corridors.
    Matteo Ferrari and Carlota Gallo have designed their own apartment in MadridThe apartment’s interior was in poor condition when Ferrari and Gallo purchased the property, and decided to convert it into a contemporary home.
    The design retains some of the building’s historical features while reorganising the compact interior to create a series of light and bright interconnected spaces.
    Its living room is flooded with light via two huge windowsFerrari and Gallo describe the apartment as a “non-urban place, a sensorial refuge to reconnect with ourselves, regulate our emotions and disconnect from the hustle and bustle of the outside world”.

    The couple used a pared-back material palette to create a warm and comfortable atmosphere, making the most of the daylight that enters the interior through two large windows in the living room.
    Arched openings separate the dining area from the living room”The intervention is characterised by a spatial continuity and a warm minimalism,” the duo explained. “It seeks to elevate natural light and encourage the use of local craft materials, generating a close dialogue between light and materiality.”
    A central partition dividing the dining area from the living room was altered by adding a pair of lowered arches that echo the proportions of the facade openings.
    Aluminium kitchen fronts provide a counterpoint to the muted colour paletteLight from the windows passes through the openings to reach the kitchen, while the bedroom downstairs receives indirect illumination from a pair of openings in the floor above.
    Throughout the interior, the designers chose to use simple and authentic materials, featuring predominantly earthy tones.
    “The approach is to be honest with the materials, respecting their authentic appearance and textures while prioritising natural resources and local craftsmanship,” Ferrari and Gallo explained.

    Vibrant glazed tiles divvy up Madrid apartment by Sierra + De La Higuera

    The apartment’s entrance opens directly into the kitchen and dining area, which is arranged around a sculptural table designed by the couple that features a textural Tadelakt plaster finish.
    Floors are covered with handmade terracotta tiles to create consistency between the spaces. The same tiles are used in the bathroom, with their varying dimensions giving each space a unique quality.
    The bedroom receives indirect illumination from openings in the floor aboveTables and display stands were created using stone salvaged during the renovation process, while the kitchen’s aluminium storage units provide a contemporary counterpoint to the natural tones and textures.
    Gallo designed the textiles used within the apartment to add texture and dynamism to the spaces. These include a draped nylon curtain that echoes the warm tones used in the bathroom.
    Draped nylon fabric acts as a shower curtain in the bathroomOther works of art and craft bring personality to the apartment, such as the washbasin made by designer María Lázaro and a hammock woven in Colombia using traditional techniques.
    Ferrari moved from Italy to Madrid in 2008 after completing his architecture studies at the University of Ferrara. He founded his own studio in 2015, which focuses on using simple gestures to create timeless and familiar spaces.
    The photography is by Asier Rua.

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    Vibrant glazed tiles divvy up Madrid apartment by Sierra + De La Higuera

    Spanish architecture studio Sierra + De La Higuera has used traditional Moroccan zellige tiles to define the different spaces in this open-plan apartment in Madrid.

    Housed in a 1940s building in the city’s bohemian Conde Duque neighbourhood, the apartment belongs to a well-travelled couple that wanted to stamp its Mexican and Galician heritage onto the interior.
    Colourful tiling features throughout the Conde Duque apartment”Our clients wanted to bring part of their origins to Madrid,” Sierra + De La Higuera told Dezeen. “This project is the outcome of a quest to find colour in Madrid, a characteristic marked by the owners’ journeys and origins.”
    The studio was commissioned to carry out a complete refurbishment of the apartment, which included totally changing its layout.
    The apartment is housed in a 1940s building in MadridThe original plan consisted of a series of rooms laid out along a long windowless hallway. Sierra + De La Higuera removed as many walls as possible to create an open-plan kitchen, dining and living space.

    “Historically in Madrid, houses had a lot of rooms and partitions,” the studio told Dezeen.
    “But nowadays, we like to live on a more open-plan basis. The main aim of the new layout was to open spaces, eliminate corridors and hallways, and to gain as much natural light as possible.”
    A wood-panelled entrance hall separates the living and dining spacesTwo bedrooms – one with a walk-in wardrobe and both with adjoining bathrooms – are located at the north end of the apartment while a bright sitting room wrapped by south-facing terraces sits at the opposite end.
    Throughout the apartment, natural timber, terracotta tiles and white walls were used as foils to the zellige tiling, which is distinguished by its imperfect hand-moulded surfaces.
    Emerald green zellige tiles distinguish the kitchenThe wood-panelled entrance hall with its arched doorways was conceived as a buffer between two different zones. On the one side is the Mexico-influenced kitchen and dining area finished with emerald green tiles.
    And on the other side are the living room and the terraces with their bold yellow colour scheme, which were informed by the couple’s travels to Singapore.
    “We focused on vivid colours: bright yellows, greens, blues and reds, paired with materials like tiles, ceramics and fine wood,” explained Sierra + De La Higuera.

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    In the sitting room and the two bathrooms – finished in red and blue respectively – the tiles were used to create decorative striped skirting that frames the different zones.
    In some areas, the colours of the tiles are applied to other furnishings to create a cohesive feel, with the green upholstery in the living room echoing the glazed green tiles in the kitchen.
    Yellow was applied liberally throughout the terraces and in the living roomA large bookshelf that runs around the kitchen, dining and living room area was custom designed for the space by Sierra + De La Higuera.
    “This element is very important to the clients, as it holds all the objects they have collected on each of their journeys in addition to all their books,” the studio explained.
    Tiles were also used to create decorative striped skirting in the bathroomsIn the bedroom, the architects designed custom cabinetry and specified a cloud-grey carpet to create a calm and cosy ambience, which is intended to evoke Galicia.
    Other projects that use tiles to delineate rooms include a Barcelona bed and breakfast by Nook Architects that features vibrant blue tiles and cobalt-blue paintwork.
    The photography is by German Sáiz.

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  • Old Spanish workshop converted into tactile family home by Nomos

    Tactile bricks and pinewood partitions decorate the La Nave apartment, which Nomos has slotted into the concrete shell of a disused workshop in Madrid, Spain.La Nave was developed by Nomos as a family home for two of its partners, Ophélie Herranz and Paul Galindo, who head up its Spanish office.
    The project has since been shortlisted for apartment interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020.

    Wood and brick partitions divide the old workshop’s concrete shell
    La Nave was originally used as a large, open-plan printshop arranged around a structural concrete grid measuring 34 metres in length and 10 metres in depth.

    Nomos’ intervention retains this structure but converts its open layout into a continuous loop of living areas, arranged around enclosed private rooms.

    The new partitions are positioned at angles to the outer walls
    “La Nave is the transformation of an industrial space into a place for life, which takes place as a continuous sequence, with very little difference between work and family leisure,” said the studio, which also has offices in Geneva and Lisbon.
    “La Nave’s plan escapes any typological definition. It results from the search for new spatialities required by existing constraints.”

    Bricks and wood were used to warm the existing concrete structure
    Nomos’ initial plan for the apartment was to position the enclosed spaces and wet areas on the rear wall – opposite to the only facade with windows.
    However, La Nave’s existing plumbing is attached to the central concrete columns, meaning the wet areas had to be placed centrally too.

    The bedrooms and bathrooms are enclosed by the new partitions
    To achieve this while ensuring natural light could enter the depths of the apartment, Nomos positioned the wet areas and enclosed rooms in line with the central columns, but at a 45-degree angle to the outer walls.
    They are divided into two parts and set back from windows, making space either side and in between to ensuring light from the windows can pass through.

    Glazed bricks line the wet areas and bathrooms
    “The typological strategy started from the search for the optimal location of the service spaces,” Herranz told Dezeen.
    “The wet cores had to reach the downspouts, attached to the central pillars, but we wanted to move them towards the back of the space, to offer more light to the living spaces. We rotated them 45 degrees and explored the potential of the diagonal.”

    Original beams and brickwork add warmth to pared-back Madrid apartment

    The layout creates a continuous loop of shared living spaces around the perimeter of the apartment, which are used for work, play and dining.
    “We never thought of creating a large, open, loft-like space, but rather a sequence of well-defined spaces, which would give rise to multiple situations,” Herranz added.

    Bedrooms are positioned through the centre of the apartment
    By setting the private living spaces away from the windows, Nomos also made space for a “winter garden” along the window wall.
    This area doubles as a thermal buffer – a space that separates living areas from the outside to reduce dependence on artificial heating and cooling.

    The “winter garden” doubles as a thermal buffer
    The predominant material throughout the renovation is glazed brick, finished in white and cobalt blue, teamed with a pinewood framework and MDF panels.
    The materials were chosen by Nomos to complement the existing concrete structure while providing the space with a warmer and more homely atmosphere.

    Patterns are made with glazed and unglazed bricks
    “The qualities of traditional materials provide comfort and reinforce the idea of home, of domesticity, in contrast to the surrounding industrial space,” said Herranz.
    “The glazed bricks provide a note of brightness and colour typical of a more ornamental language.”

    A loop of living spaces wraps the central rooms
    The bricks were used to build most of the partitions, with their glazed sides lining bathrooms and kitchen and the unglazed faces exposed in the living rooms.
    Their glazed and unglazed sides are also alternated in places to create patterns.

    A kitchen aligns with old workshop’s existing plumbing
    The majority of furniture in the space is bespoke, designed by Nomos from pine wood specifically for La Nave.
    This includes a low-lying, circular table and coffee table made from pine, and terrazzo detailing made with old flooring that was removed from the workshop.
    Other projects that are shortlisted for apartment interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020 a sea-facing residence in Jaffa by Pitsou Kedem and a two-storey dwelling by Coffey Architects that is covered in thousands of wooden blocks.
    Photography is by Luis Asin.

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  • Minimal Fantasy holiday apartment in Madrid is almost completely pink

    Patricia Bustos Studio channelled “aesthetic madness” to create the striking bright-pink interior of this rentable apartment at the heart of Madrid, Spain.Locally-based Patricia Bustos Studio applied 12 different shades of pink throughout the Minimal Fantasy apartment, which is meant to offer a bolder take on the typical holiday rental.
    “We wanted to do something eye-catching and not go unnoticed, since in Madrid the offer of vacation rentals is enormous and you have to differentiate yourself if you want to have a recurrence in the rentals,” the studio told Dezeen.

    Surfaces throughout the apartment are bright pink
    The 55-square-metre apartment is set inside a 1950s residential building that’s a stone’s throw away from Madrid’s lively Puerta del Sol square.

    It formerly played host to just one bedroom and one bathroom, but Patricia Bustos Studio reconfigured the floor plan so that it can comfortably accommodate slightly larger groups of holiday goers.

    An arched doorway looks through to the kitchen
    There are now two bedrooms and an additional bathroom. The kitchen has also been separated from the living area so that, if necessary, it can sleep another two guests.
    With structural changes out the way, the studio set about creating the apartment’s stand-out interior – which is almost exclusively pink.

    Cabinetry in the kitchen is a mix of blue, pink and gold
    “Except for the distribution, which had to be practical, the rest of the project has been an aesthetic madness to take the visitor out of their comfort zone and make them dream,” explained the studio.
    “Pink is already the colour of a whole generation… the generation of the brave, those who are not afraid of change,” it continued.
    “Pink vindicates the fall of stereotypes – everything is possible, nothing is planned or established and that’s the beauty of it. There are no rules, or rather that everyone has their own.”

    Pink cushions and faux-fur throws dress the beds
    In the living area, bubblegum-pink paint has been applied across the walls and ceiling. A flecked pink laminate covers the floor and a chunky L-shaped plinth that winds around the corner of the room, topped with plush pink sofa cushions.
    Guests can gather for meals around the oval-shaped pink dining table, which is surrounded by dining chairs upholstered in metallic pink fabric with an iridescent finish.

    One of the beds is supported by a pink-tile platform
    The monochromatic colour scheme is interrupted in the adjacent kitchen, where the cabinets are covered in a mixture of blue, pink and gold geometric shapes.
    Worktops are lined with glazed, blush-pink tiles.

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    These same tiles have been used to clad the side tables and supporting mattress base in one of the apartment’s bedrooms.
    In the other bedroom, the mattress is pushed up against a scalloped pink headboard. Textural interest is added throughout by baby-pink lamé soft cushions and faux-fur throws.
    Arched sliding doors can be drawn back to reveal pink-tile bathrooms, complete with pink-frame vanity mirrors and shiny pink shower curtains.

    Bathrooms lie behind arched sliding screens
    Other than a few spherical pendant lights, trailing ivy plants and neon art piece, Patricia Bustos Studio hasn’t incorporated a lot of decoration in the apartment.
    Some elements, like the stepped blocks which display books and other trinkets, are meant to riff off La Muralla Roja – a housing development designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill in 1968, distinguished by its maze of interlocking stairways.
    “[Bofill] creates a mysterious and infinite space with the perfect transformation between 2D and 3D, and with several elements that play with the optical illusion,” added the studio.

    Shiny pink curtains and pink-frame mirrors complete the bathrooms
    Several other architects and designers haven’t shied away from making extensive use of the colour pink – last year, Child Studio covered the interior of a vegan pizza restaurant in London with candy-pink Formica.
    Mar Plus Ask also washed the walls of a cave-like guesthouse in Spain with blush-pink stucco.
    Photography is by JC de Marcos.

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    Original beams and brickwork add warmth to pared-back Madrid apartment

    Architect Leticia Saá has woven historical features such as exposed brickwork and wooden pillars into the minimal interior of this open-plan apartment in Madrid. Located in Madrid’s Lavapiés neighbourhood, the two-bedroom apartment is spread across the top floor of a three-storey residential building that dates back to 1900. The apartment had been unoccupied for 35 […] More