Unique beams and brickwork add heat to pared-back Madrid condominium
Architect Leticia Saá has woven historic options comparable to uncovered brickwork and wood pillars into the minimal inside of this open-plan condominium in Madrid.
Positioned in Madrid’s Lavapiés neighbourhood, the two-bedroom condominium is unfold throughout the highest ground of a three-storey residential constructing that dates again to 1900.
The condominium had been unoccupied for 35 years previous to its renovation, which has been carried out by native architect Leticia Saá.
Its house owners – a younger couple – had beforehand lived in a tiny and cluttered flat, so have been eager for his or her new dwelling to really feel massive and spacious.
Consequently, Saá has given the 130-square-metre condominium a largely open-plan format the place the bogs are the one utterly non-public areas.
Social areas comparable to the lounge, kitchen and residential workplace are situated on one half of the plan, whereas the bedrooms and bogs are on the opposite.
The 2 sides are linked by a hallway which wraps across the constructing’s stairwell and central courtyard.
To melt the looks of the inside, which has been given a minimalist fit-out, Saá sought to include a few of the constructing’s unique quirks.
Time-worn brick partitions, wood beams and pillars have been preserved, in addition to a brick fire. Surrounding surfaces have been freshened up with a easy coat of white paint.
“ To create an area which exudes calm and serenity contained in the hustle of town, we needed to make use of a minimalist however heat ornamental and furnishing fashion,” defined Saá.
“ The structure of the 1900s had a really robust affect within the historic metropolis centre, so we needed to get well the constructing methods of that interval and reveal them in some components of the home.”
To reinforce the sensation of the condominium being one massive, steady house, Saá needed concrete flooring to seem all through the inside. That is in exception of the lounge, the place huge oak floorboards have been put in as an alternative.
The change of flooring right here is supposed to sign a change within the temper of the house.
“I needed to create a comfy and pure surroundings and make the lounge completely different from the remainder of the condominium,” Saá informed Dezeen.
The doorway hallway has been conceived as transitional house between the within and outdoors. An array of houseplants sit in a single nook, and a small inside window has been punctuated in a wall to create the feeling of a patio or a road.
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The washbasin of the toilet has been positioned exterior of its door, supposed to behave as a visible barrier between the visitor quarters and the remainder of the house.
“It was additionally positioned right here due to the beautiful pure gentle which comes throughout the window,” Saá mentioned.
Within the kitchen, which is situated between the corridor and the lounge, Saá has continued the pared-back aesthetic. The house options handle-less plywood cabinets, a stainless-steel backsplash and a breakfast island with a white-steel body.
A cardboard lamp by Dutch design studio Waarmakers hangs instantly above.
“We think about [the kitchen] as an built-in component in the home,” added Saá, “That is why the island has this gentle look, and solely an induction cooker seems atop the counter.”
A mezzanine stage that is used as an additional visitor room or studying nook sits above the kitchen and is accessed by way of a step ladder.
A house workplace and utility house are additionally situated reverse the kitchen.
Like Saá, many architects decide to maintain historic parts – White Arrow preserved ornate door frames and coving in its renovation of an condominium in Berlin, whereas TAAB6 conserved barrel-vaulted brick ceilings in its overhaul of a Barcelona townhouse.
Pictures is by Iñaki Domingo of IDC Studio.