Located in the Malasaña neighbourhood in Madrid, the apartment of barely 30m2 had every opportunity to become a fantastic home: being on the top floor of a century-old building, the space enjoyed natural light entering through a rather large interior courtyard. On the street façade, it only had a couple of small openings near the ceiling, located above the building's roof. A low and uncomfortable room which only has a small skylight extends under the sloped roof.
The project takes all this potential and attempts to fulfill it. The main intervention consists of creating a living room space that is as generous and clear as possible. The narrow corridor giving access to the kitchen is eliminated to achieve a living room with a much more regular geometry, giving a new window overlooking the interior courtyard from the living room. The kitchen is opened up to the living room, integrating it like a piece of furniture. The false ceiling is demolished, revealing the espectacular wooden beam structure of the roof, lending great spaciousness to the entire area and compensating for the reduced dimensions of the living room.
Around this central space, and as if they were annexes or satellites, the rest of the rooms are distributed. The bathroom occupies the entire space previously shared with the kitchen. The bedroom opens to the living room while maintaining privacy through folding panels, and it is elevated to achieve ample storage space under the bed.
Finally, what was once a wasted and uncomfortable room becomes the best space of the apartment: the annex under the sloped roof is fully opened up to the living room, acting as an extension of it, by widening the skylight, it floods the entire floor with natural light, feeling almost like a terrace. The space under the roof, which previously served as a closet and was accessed through the room, is also opened to the living room and is transformed into a nook for studying or working.
The living room, finished in white and neutral tones, cedes prominence to the beams that crown it. The adjacent rooms are hidden behind different closing elements: a sliding door provides privacy to the bathroom, a folding door closes off the bedroom, and a curtain conceals the attic space and the nook. Upon opening these elements, the predominant white disappears and the space is flooded with vibrant colors flowing from the bathroom with its brilliant blue mosaic, from the bedroom storage space with a luminous yellow, and from the space under the roof with a lively green that transports us to a calm, exterior-related space and offers views of the Madrid sky.
Team:
Design: Albert Montilla - midori arquitectura
Furniture and home staging: Alejandro González
Photography: Javier de Paz Garcia
