A Simple and Comfortable Apartment for a Single Woman in Madrid, Spain

Parais@ by Manuel Omaña

One. It is a refurbishment work for an especially dear, single woman. The apartment is located where the sun sets in Madrid. The space is interior, configured by three bays of 17 m2 (183 ft2).

Two. She is determined about what she wants. Authentic wood pavement, geometrical floors, a tattoo as Beyonce’s and gentrifying environment with all the clichés that it involves.

Three. We decide three things. First, there should not be conventional partitions nor doors. Second, never reaching the ceiling with anything opaque. Third, and most difficult one, getting disoriented in 50 m2 (538 ft2).

Four. Spatially. Compartimentaticion is made only by furniture disposition or glass partitions. A mirroring volume with 500x221x221 cm (197x87x87 in). dimensions allows hiding, misleading and amplifying the space.

Five. Materiality. IKEA furniture is packaged into formwork board boxes. The structure of glass partitions is made out of crude steel material. All 166 glass pieces embedded in those air-walls are all the same size, fixed with old black putty glazier. They are 3 mm (0.12 in) thick, which increases transparency and anti-reflection issues that are not achieved with common and thicker laminated glasses.

Six. Three sixes, Three Facts. At this housing scale is better not to project installations along the ceiling, but getting them through the floor and out on the walls. The encounter between baseboards boxes and these hydraulic tiles with geometric and coloured patterns has to be mirrored, anything else just doesn’t make sense. And once again, it is confirmed that a centered column into a space is always desirable and useful.