Project Description
The project involves the full refurbishment of a duplex in the city centre of Madrid that will host a family expecting its third child and whose needs will change significantly over the forthcoming years. The house is therefore designed as an unfinished space, which will be modified and adapted to respond to the life changes of its inhabitants.
In the first phase, the house has large and fluid spaces, where the absence of physical barriers (open spaces, doors disappearing into walls, very few partitions, continuous pavements…) allows permanent visual contact for a family with small children, understanding their spatial needs as an extended playground. On the lower floor, the house is built around three volumes, comprising the most private spaces (two bathrooms and a dressing room) and upstairs there is a single unit (the third bathroom). The remaining programme is configured as a series of interstitial spaces without clear boundaries, dissolving the traditional structure of the distributor hall. As residents grow up and the need for large spaces to play in is reduced, the house will be subdivided in a simple, fast and economic way to respond to these new situations and independence requirements.
In this second phase, the project proposes an adaptable solution with only two plasterboard partitions, changing the functionality of the house and offering more private spaces, while preserving the communal spaces for family gatherings: the kitchen and living room. The staircase, built with folded sheets lined with bamboo and supported by tensioned steel wires, plays an important role in this central core of the house, as a lightweight and slightly permeable element acting as a link between spaces and activities in the house. It is also an interactive component, which functions as a decorative support for the various family events throughout the year (birthdays, Christmas, Halloween…) giving the house a unique and customisable character. The whole house has been adapted to improve climatic conditions, with better insulation and seamless cross ventilation, due to the fact that all doors and windows are sliding.
The project aims to achieve a dwelling that evolves in parallel and in harmony with the people who live in it, adjusting to their needs over time and understanding the need for adaptability and customisation in our contemporary lifestyles.
