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      Energy-saving 10K House in Barcelona is a “labyrinth that multiplies perspectives”

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      Spanish studio Takk took cues from snugly stacked Russian dolls for the interior renovation of this Barcelona apartment, which features rooms nestled inside each other to maximise insulation.

      Called 10K House, the 50-square-metre apartment was renovated by Takk using a material budget of only 10,000 euros with the aim of updating the home to be as sustainable as possible.
      10K House is a residential interior design projectThe project was informed by concerns about climate change as well as the global energy crisis faced by homeowners and renters.
      Arranged across one open level, rooms were built “inside one another” in a formation that mimics the layers of an onion and places the rooms that require the most heat at the centre of the apartment, according to Takk.
      The bedroom is raised on recycled white table legs”This causes the heat emitted by us, our pets or our appliances to have to go through more walls to reach the outside,” principal architects Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño told Dezeen.

      “If we place the spaces that need more heat – for example, the room where we sleep – in the centre of the Matryoshka [a Russian doll] we realise that we need to heat it less because the configuration of the house itself helps to maintain the temperature.”
      “The result is a kind of labyrinth that multiplies perspectives,” explained the architects, who designed the project for a single client.
      MDF was used throughout the apartmentRecycled table legs were used to elevate these constructed rooms to allow the free passage of water pipes and electrical fittings without having to create wall grooves, reducing the overall cost.
      For example, the raised central bedroom is clad in gridded frames of medium-density fibreboard (MDF) that are enveloped by slabs of local sheep’s wool – utilitarian and inexpensive materials that feature throughout the interior.
      “Despite being a small apartment, it is very complex to ensure that you never get bored of the space,” said Luzárraga and Muiño.
      The remnants of previous partitions were left exposedAfter demolishing the apartment’s existing internal layout, Takk chose not to apply costly and carbon-intensive coatings to the floors and walls.
      Rather, the architects scrubbed the space clean and left traces of the previous partitions and dismantled light fixtures visible, giving the apartment a raw appearance and maintaining a reminder of the original floor plan.
      The kitchen features a metallic sink and low-slung cabinetsThe kitchen is located in the most open part of 10K House, which includes timber geometric cabinetry and an exposed metallic sink.
      According to the architects, the open kitchen intends to act as a facility “without associated gender” and address stereotypes typically attached to housework.

      Energy savings from home insulation “vanishing” after four years

      “Traditionally, the kitchen has been understood as a space to be used mainly by women, whether they own the house or do domestic work,” reflected Luzárraga and Muiño.
      “This has meant that [historically] this space has been relegated to secondary areas of the house, poorly lit and poorly ventilated, especially in small homes.”
      “One way to combat this is by placing the kitchen in better and open spaces, so that everyone, regardless of their gender, is challenged to take charge of this type of task,” they added.
      10K House was constructed using CNC-milled componentThe dwelling was constructed using CNC-milled components that were cut prior to arriving on-site and assembled using standard screws.
      Takk chose this method to encourage DIY when building a home, and armed the client with a small instruction manual that allowed them to assemble aspects of the apartment themselves “as if [the apartment] were a piece of furniture”.
      Takk was informed by soaring energy prices when designing the project10K House is based on a previous project by the architecture studio called The Day After House, which features similar “unprejudiced” design principles, according to Luzárraga and Muiño.
      The architects – who are also a couple – created a winter-themed bedroom for their young daughter by inserting a self-contained igloo-like structure within their home in Barcelona.
      The photography is by José Hevia.

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      Natural Connections exhibition aims to “help people rediscover nature”

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      Designers Inma Bermúdez, Moritz Krefter, Jorge Penadés and Alvaro Catalán de Ocón have created three playful wooden furniture pieces on show at Madrid Design Festival.

      Devised by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), Natural Connections was on show in the entrance hall of the cultural building Matadero Madrid.
      Top: Natural Connections features playful furniture pieces. Above: the exhibition took place in the Matadero MadridEach of the three furniture pieces was designed to encourage interaction with wood – with one acting as a bench, the other a climbing frame and the third a hanging light installation.
      The designs were created in response to a brief provided by AHEC, which sought pieces made by Spanish designers out of maple, cherry, and red oak hardwoods sourced from American forests in an effort to encourage the use of the material.
      Catalán de Ocón designed Nube, a hanging light installation”We challenged the design studios to present these chambers in a public space – in a public context – so that visitors get to experience a connection,” AHEC European director David Venables told Dezeen.

      “The design teams worked with maple, cherry, and red oak to create playful, original, and highly innovative installations that we hope will provide engagement, excitement and a connection for visitors to these wonderful natural materials,” said Venables.
      Inma Bermúdez and Moritz Krefter created several “bovine-shaped” seatsDesigner Catalán de Ocón created a six-metre-long hanging light called Nube  – which translates to cloud in English – made of 4,000 interconnected spherical and cylindrical individual pieces of wood.
      Nube is lit by several LED lights that were placed in the middle of the hollow structure. A brass cable runs from the bass into the mesh structure, branching into positive and negative electric currents.
      Positive poles run through the cherry wood while negative poles run through the maple pieces, which form a complete circuit when they touch and illuminate the bulbs.
      Visitors can perch on the benches and touch the woodsIts design was informed by Catalán de Ocón’s fascination with the manufacturing process for small utilitarian wooden objects such as pegs, matches and blinds.
      “I was inspired by the little match or the pencil, or the wooden pin for hanging the clothes – those kinds of manufacturing techniques, where you get an object which is repeated over and over and over again,” Catalán de Ocón told Dezeen.
      Jorge Penadés produced a bleacher-style structureMeanwhile, La Manada Perdida, or The Lost Herd, by Inma Bermúdez and Moritz Krefter was influenced by the Matadero’s former function as a slaughterhouse and cattle market.
      The Spanish design duo produced a series of red oak, maple and cherry benches for Natural Connections that reference equine and bovine animals such as horses and cows. The pieces were given minimal finishing to mimic the texture of the tree they came from.
      “They appear as benches or seats, but their design goes beyond furniture to incorporate aspects of imagination and play to help people encounter and rediscover nature,” said AHEC.

      Students create sustainable furniture from hardwoods at Madrid Design Festival

      Madrid-based designer Penadés responded to the natural connections theme by producing a tiered seating piece called Wrap that is connected by ball joints.
      The designer, who is known for his interior projects with Spanish footwear brand Camper, glued and rolled 0.7-millimetres-thick pieces of cherry veneer into tubes to create tubular hollow components, which form a bleacher-style seat when joined together.
      Wrap is made from thin rolls of cherry veneerNatural Connections is one of several exhibitions at Madrid Design Festival, a month-long event that sees a design programme take over the Spanish city. After the exhibition ends, the furniture will remain in the cultural centre for a year.
      Also at this year’s edition is Slow Spain, an exhibition by university students that aims to explore American hardwoods and mindful furniture consumption.
      Last year saw lighting designer Antoni Arola and Spanish light manufacturer Simon use a smoke machine, lasers and a small tree to create Fiat Lux 3 Architectures of Light.
      Natural Connections is on show at Matadero Madrid as part of Madrid Design Festival 2023, which takes place from 14 February to 12 March. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the month.
      The photography is courtesy of AHEC.
      Project credits:
      Designers: Inma Bermúdez and Moritz Krefter, Alvaro Catalán de Ocón, Jorge PenadésPartners: American Hardwood Export Council, Matadero Madrid, Madrid Design Festival, Tamalsa

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      Nagami 3D-prints recycled plastic to mimic melting glaciers in Spanish boutique

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      Spanish design studio Nagami has completed a shop interior for sustainable clothing brand Ecoalf near Madrid that is almost entirely 3D printed from recycled plastic.

      Walls, shelves and display tables inside the store in the Las Rozas Village designer outlet are made from 3.3 tonnes of repurposed plastic waste, sourced mainly from hospitals and used to create transluscent surfaces that resemble melting glaciers.
      Nagami has 3D-printed the interior of Ecoalf’s boutique near MadridAdditive manufacturing specialist Nagami created the plastic panels using a robotic arm equipped with a custom-built extruder that can print complex 3D forms, with the aim of uniting design and technology to raise awareness about the climate crisis.
      “We wanted to highlight the melting of the polar glaciers due to climate change,” Nagami co-founder Manuel Jiménez García told Dezeen. “So the walls are meant to represent a glacier that is cracking.”
      “The 3D-sculpted texture is a reference to the way the wind and snow erode the ice over time,” he added. “The idea was to recreate the sensation you might have when walking inside a glacier.”

      The interior was designed to resemeble a melting glacierThe Ecoalf store is the first fully 3D-printed interior completed by Nagami. And García believes it may be the first in the world to be fully 3D-printed using recycled plastic.
      The project was completed with a very short lead time of just three months from design to installation.
      Almost all of the surfaces are made from recycled plasticAccording to García, the undulating forms that cover almost all of the store’s internal surfaces pushed the robotic printing technology to its limit.
      “The machines needed to literally dance to create all of these different angles,” the designer explained. “Traditional 3D printing uses layers. But we can change the angle of the robot to make the kinds of curved and wavy forms you see in this project.”
      The walls are divided into panels and joined using connectors that form part of the printed structure. This meant that the tolerances needed to be very precise so that the components can slot together neatly.

      Nagami’s first collection features 3D-printed chairs by Zaha Hadid Architects

      On the floor, natural stone tiles feature veins reminiscent of cracking ice to enhance the feeling of walking on a glacier.
      All of the components used for the interior can be disassembled and reused or recycled for future projects. The plastic itself is almost infinitely recyclable, losing just one per cent of its structural performance with each new use, Nagami claims.
      The shop is located in the Las Rozas Village designer outletBoth companies share an interest in sustainable manufacturing, with Ecoalf creating clothing, footwear and accessories using recycled materials including plastic bottles, discarded fishing nets, used tyres and post-industrial wool and cotton.
      Similarly, Nagami works with recycled plastic to create furniture, sculptures, interiors and architectural elements as part of a closed-loop production process.
      The studio’s previous projects include several window displays for Dior, as well as a mobile toilet cubicle called The Throne and a collection of 3D-printed chairs by designers including Ross Lovegrove and Zaha Hadid Architects.
      Nagami used special robotic arms to 3D-print the panels. Photo by NagamiDuring the coronavirus pandemic, Nagami also made use of its quick-fire production process to 3D print face shields for medical staff.
      “We see 3D printing as one of the most sustainable forms of production,” García explained. “You don’t have to produce stock, it doesn’t create any fumes and it’s very versatile so you can create things on demand.”
      “In the future as we expand we want to have production sites around the world making things locally and reducing our carbon footprint even further.”
      All photography is by Alfonso-Quiroga unless otherwise stated.

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      Studio Noju renovates curvy apartment in brutalist Torres Blancas tower

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      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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      Lucas y Hernández-Gil uses extreme colour blocking in Naked and Famous bar

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      Madrid-based studio Lucas y Hernández-Gil has used reflective materials, neon lighting and sunset colours to create intense interiors for a bar in Seville.

      Called Naked and Famous, the bar contains a series of rooms that explore extremely different moods, thanks to varying colours, materials and lighting conditions.
      The bar features three distinctively different roomsAccording to architect Cristina Domínguez Lucas, co-founder of Lucas y Hernández-Gil, the aim was create to a visual experience that echoes the taste sensations of the various cocktails on offer.
      “We hope to intensify the experience of cocktail drinking by achieving an atmosphere of saturated tones where visual perception establishes connections with the sense of taste,” she told Dezeen.
      The design aims to intensify the experience of drinking cocktailsNaked and Famous is the latest venture from the team behind the popular Seville restaurant Casaplata, which opened in the Spanish city in 2018.

      While the cocktail bar has a similarly contemporary feel, with industrial-style materials and bold forms, the design is much more immersive.
      The entrance lobby is framed by mirror surfacesYou arrive via a mirror-lined lobby, intended to play with your perception of space.
      From here, a tall arched doorway leads through to a room where everything is a vivid shade of pink.
      The central room is a vivid shade of pinkThere are two more spaces to discover.
      One is a softly lit room coloured in midnight blue, described by Lucas as a space of  “silence and shadows”.

      Pastel furnishings contrast against concrete walls in Seville’s Casaplata restaurant

      The other is a laboratory-inspired room featuring a cocktail bar framed by metallic surfaces. Argon-blue lighting gives the room a turquoise glow.
      “Here we find ourselves surrounded by metalised tones and reflections, just as in a great cocktail shaker,” said Lucas.
      Another of the rooms is coloured in a midnight-blue toneThe design takes inspiration from the light artworks of Dan Flavin and James Turrell, as well as the paintings of Milton Avery. The colour palette is based on the colours of the sky during sunset hours.
      The lighting effects are amplified by the combination of multi-textural and see-through materials, particularly the corrugated and perforated metal that forms internal walls, and the acoustic foam on the ceiling.
      The bar is designed with a laboratory feelThe rooms have been furnished with bespoke tables and chairs designed by Lucas y Hernández-Gil’s furniture studio, Kresta Design.
      Based on the forms of kitchen utensils, these designs feature cone shapes, splayed legs, high-gloss surfaces and velvet upholstery.
      Argon-blue lighting is reflected around the spaceLucas and partner Fernando Hernández-Gil Ruano founded their studio in 2007.
      Other completed projects include the La Hermandad de Villalba guesthouse and the Juana Limón cafe in Madrid.
      The photography is by Juan Delgado.

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      Parramon + Tahull adds tiled floors and bespoke joinery to refurbished Barcelona apartment

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      Barcelona studio Parramon + Tahull has renovated a traditional apartment in the city’s Gracia neighbourhood, adding birch plywood joinery and ceramic tiling to complement the building’s original features.

      The apartment is home to a family of four, which has lived there for several years and wanted to carry out a significant overhaul of the outdated interior.
      Parramon + Tahull has renovated an apartment in BarcelonaThe clients asked local architects Lluís Parramon and Emma Tahull to oversee the transformation of the space to provide an open living area and kitchen, along with separate bedrooms for each of their two daughters.
      The apartment is located on the upper floor of a five-storey building dating from the 1900s. A previous renovation undertaken around 20 years ago had altered the layout and destroyed most of the original features.
      The studio added bespoke joinery including a small built-in deskParramon + Tahull began by removing all of the existing partition walls in order to create a brighter and more practical series of spaces within the compact floor plan.

      The rearranged interior also provides plenty of usable storage and restores some of the original details, including wooden beams that had been painted white by the previous owners.
      Terracotta tiles cover floors throughout the apartment”We wanted to bring natural light into all the spaces and to achieve a sense of flowing, continuous space despite the limited surface area,” Tahull told Dezeen.
      “We were interested in working with natural materials and returning some of the original spirit of the building to the apartment.”
      Bespoke joinery is also provides storage in the bedroomsDue to its small size, the architects paid close attention to the choice of materials and layout in order to create a serene, spacious feel.
      “To achieve all the client’s goals, we had to work on a very precise scale of detail, designing all of the furniture to measure in order to take advantage of every square centimetre,” Tahull explained.

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      The interior utilises a palette of predominantly natural materials, chosen to complement the wooden beams while providing an element of tonal and textural contrast.
      Parramon + Tahull chose ceramic tiles from Spanish manufacturer Wow to create a continuous flooring surface throughout the entire apartment, including the kitchen and bathroom.
      Glossy white tiles clad the walls in the bathroom”We were looking for a small-format tile so the feeling of space would be bigger,” Tahull added. “We also wanted to play with a tapestry-like colour scheme that included white, because white gives a great luminosity and echoes the white of other elements.”
      The white and terracotta-coloured tiles include different formats, textures and surface finishes ranging from glossy to matte.
      White grout is used for the floors throughout the rooms, while the bathroom walls are clad in white tiles with contrasting reddish grout.
      Reddish grout provides a visual contrastBespoke fitted cabinetry made from birch plywood provides practical storage in every room, as well as in the hallway. Along with the tiles, the wood forms a consistent element that unites the spaces.
      Lluís Parramon and Emma Tahull founded their studio in 1997. The office focuses on delivering comfortable, contextual and energy-efficient architectural projects for private and commercial clients.
      The photography is by Judith Casas Sayós.

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

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      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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      OHLAB celebrates historical details at Can Santacilia apartments in Palma de Mallorca

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      Architecture office OHLAB has renovated a historical apartment building in Palma de Mallorca introducing contemporary elements including a meandering wooden walkway that contrast with the original features.

      Can Santacilia is a 3,300-square-metre residential development containing 15 apartments and common areas distributed across two adjoining buildings in the heart of Palma de Mallorca’s old town.
      A main central courtyard is included at Can SantaciliaParts of the existing building appear to date back as far as the 12th or 13th century, although the main building as it stands was erected in the 17th century and was subsequently modified in the 18th and 20th centuries.
      Local architecture and design office OHLAB was tasked with overseeing a modernisation project involving repairs to the existing structure, as well as the sensitive restoration of key original features including the main central courtyard.
      OHLAB oversaw a sensitive restoration process”The building was abandoned and in a really bad shape with some parts about to collapse, while the best parts did not meet the most basic living conditions,” OHLAB directors Paloma Hernaiz and Jaime Oliver told Dezeen.

      A carefully conducted restoration process placed emphasis on maintaining the historical integrity of the building whilst adapting it to meet the needs of its new occupants.
      A wooden coffered ceiling was uncovered during the renovation”We had to do a thorough and intensive renovation of the whole building,” the OHLAB architects explained.
      “The distribution was changed and reorganised, new partition walls and layouts were added to accommodate the housing proposal and new installations were required to adapt the apartments to contemporary comfort and energy-efficient standards.”
      An indoor pool is framed by arched openingsThe project preserves the original features that make the building unique, such as the wrought-iron balustrades, stone columns, traditional courtyard and a wooden coffered ceiling that was uncovered during the restoration.
      The courtyard was enclosed in the 20th century, with blank walls used to conceal a parking area. Based on other traditional buildings in the city, the architecture studio restored this space to how it might have looked in the early Baroque period.
      The courtyard’s typical staircase and porched gallery were retained and two arched openings were added – one alongside a new indoor pool and the other in front of the entrance, supported by a pair of ionic columns.
      A meandering wooden walkway contrasts with the original featuresInternally, the common areas of the two buildings are connected by a wooden walkway that mitigates a height difference of approximately 90 centimetres.
      The studio said the walkway was designed to take users on a journey, “as if discovering an archaeological ruin”, leading them past some of the building’s key historic features, including a fireplace, a stone arch, a tiled floor and ornate plaster mouldings on the ceiling.
      The same light oak forms a staircase elsewhereArchitectural interventions were implemented using a material palette that clearly separates them from the existing structure. The walkway was made from light oak that was also used for other circulation areas including a staircase and the lift interiors.
      “We added pieces that are always clearly new and contemporary,” explained Hernaiz and Oliver, “with shapes and materials that in no case want to imitate or hide the ancient ones.”
      Sculptural mirrored boxes act as partitions in the apartmentsThe contrast between old and new is also evident in the apartments, some of which feature modern mirrored volumes used to partition the existing spaces whilst maintaining their overall proportions.
      The mirrored boxes never reach all the way to the ceilings, ensuring the original wood-beam construction or decorative mouldings remain visible and uninterrupted.
      Wooden beams and decorative ceilings are left uninterrupted”The mirror box disappears in its reflection, giving back the space stolen by its presence and returning a complete image of the room,” the OHLAB architects added.
      “Only when you get closer, do you realise it’s a contemporary partition that lets you enter into another space, made of stone.”
      High-quality fixtures give the apartments a premium feelOne of the most surprising discoveries made while stripping back the dilapidated interiors was an ornate medieval ceiling made from painted wooden beams and coffers, supported by a central stone pillar.
      OHLAB claimed that this find prompted the redesign of 40 per cent of the total project, including six of the 15 apartments, in order to persevere the integrity of the coffered ceiling and incorporate it into one of the living spaces.
      The palette used throughout the public and private spaces favours natural, local materials chosen to emphasise the building’s history and Mediterranean character.

      White cut-out panels create displays at Miami boutique by OHLAB

      Stone and timber structural elements was combined with plaster and wood mouldings, mortar and lime coatings and floors in ceramic and wood finishes.
      High-quality fixtures and details in local stone, bronze, porcelain and textiles including local linen and cotton enhance the premium feel across the interior spaces.
      A palette of natural, local materials permeates throughoutHernaiz and Oliver originally founded OHLAB in Shanghai in 2007 before moving to Madrid and eventually settling in Palma de Mallorca, where they head up a team of 18 architects, interior designers and engineers.
      OHLAB’s previous projects include an apartment block in Palma de Mallorca covered with thin wooden slats that shade the interiors, and a standalone villa at a hotel on the island with a window designed to frame a panoramic view of the landscape.
      The photography is by José Hevia. 

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