There are bars that try to feel like home. With Martha, we chose to do the exact opposite: to build a home and open it to everyone.
A home where people come to eat, drink, listen to music, read a book, stay longer than they intended, and, above all, return.
Inspired by Martha—the founders’ grandmother—the project revives a way of understanding hospitality that seemed almost forgotten: long conversations around the table after a meal, food that brings people together, and places where no one checks the time because no one is in a hurry.
To give shape to this idea, CODOO STUDIO imagined Martha as an expanded Madrid–Argentinian home. The kind of place that begins as the setting for a family lunch and somehow, without anyone quite knowing how, becomes the backdrop to everyone’s stories.
Because Madrid has a habit of blurring the line between the ordinary and the extraordinary. A quick beer becomes dinner, dinner turns into endless conversation, and conversation drifts into a night that lasts until the city begins to wake again. Martha is born from precisely that way of living.
The first impression feels instantly familiar. A timber bar, mirrors, stainless steel, coat hooks, continuous benches, and a warm light that could belong equally to a century-old tavern or your grandmother’s dining room.
It could be the kind of place where the waiter greets you like an old friend. Where someone orders a Fernet. Where an elderly man reads the newspaper over a glass of wine. Where conversations drift from Atlético Madrid to whether the city is still what it used to be—or perhaps whether it always has been. Martha doesn’t try to recreate a traditional tavern. It does something far more interesting: it preserves what truly mattered about them. Hospitality. A sense of belonging. The feeling that staying a little longer is not only allowed, but expected.
At the back, everything begins to change. Like someone saying, “Come with me—I want to show you something.” The lights dim. The noise fades away. The music takes over.
A large communal table brings strangers together as though they had known each other for years, while the DJ booth presides over the room like the record-filled shelving in the living room of that friend who’s obsessed with vinyl and always insists on playing “just one more track.” We all know someone like that. And we’ve all stayed much longer than we planned because of them.
Then come the chocolate-coloured bathrooms. Glossy. Bold. Unapologetically Madrid. Their dark timber panelling and rich finishes recall those classic neighbourhood bars where time always seemed to stand still.
And then comes the secret. Because every good Madrid story deserves a door that appears to lead nowhere. Behind it lies a vivid blue corridor that could belong in an Almodóvar film, a late-night club, or the set of a television series that hasn’t been made yet.
At the end awaits + Al Fondo. Not exactly a private room. More like the living room where the night finally comes to rest. A large square table. An impossible fireplace. A suspended light fitting that floats like a domestic satellite. An atmosphere reminiscent of those gatherings where nobody reaches for their phone because they’re far too busy enjoying the company around them.
Just like home. Or perhaps even better. Like the home of someone who truly knows how to welcome people.
Because Martha never wanted to be simply a restaurant, a tavern, or a listening bar.
Martha is the place where you planned to stay for an hour—and end up being the last one to leave.
The project begins with a simple premise: transforming a hospitality venue into a home open to the public.
Rather than recreating a traditional Madrid tavern or designing a listening bar, the intervention translates the family dynamic at the heart of the project into spatial form. The layout unfolds as a sequence of spaces that represent different moments and generations coexisting within the same home.
La Barra embodies Martha’s world. It is the grandmother’s kitchen—the place where meals are prepared, guests are welcomed, and the family gathers around the table. It is therefore also the area that most closely recalls the atmosphere of a traditional Madrid tavern. Here, some of the most recognisable elements of this popular architectural language—the restored timber bar, elongated mirrors, coat hooks, continuous banquettes, and stainless-steel finishes—are reinterpreted through a contemporary lens.
As visitors move further into the space, the architecture becomes less conventional and increasingly free.
Al Fondo represents the grandchildren’s territory: a place for music, experimentation, friendship, and conversations that begin without any particular plan. A large communal table, upholstered banquettes, and the presence of the DJ booth transform this room into a contemporary reinterpretation of the family playroom, reimagined for adulthood.
Between these two worlds lies a transitional element composed of glossy chocolate-lacquered bathrooms and a monochromatic blue corridor that acts as a threshold between contrasting atmospheres.
The journey culminates in + Al Fondo, conceived as the home’s most intimate and mature living space. If La Barra is the kitchen and Al Fondo is the place of gathering and discovery, then + Al Fondo is the living room where every evening naturally comes to an end. It is a quieter, more private and deeply domestic environment, centred around a large square table, a carefully restored original fireplace, and the Estel pendant light designed by Andreu Jaumeot and Luis C. Nikuradse.
Together, these spaces create a continuous spatial narrative that guides visitors from the open, convivial hospitality of the traditional tavern to the intimacy of a domestic living room, constantly blurring the boundaries between restaurant, tavern, listening bar and home.
