Apartment in Madrid | Mecanismo

This home is located in an attractive XIX Century building at Barrio de Salamanca in Madrid. The place has an open-plan and luminous space, thanks to the development of the main façade with balconies looking south. The floor area is of 200 square meters (m2). The place was found demolished. Our main objective in this renovation was to allow the circulation of natural light in each space, by not changing the façade and maintaining free circulation in the house’s perimeter. The internal divisions and the different rooms were organized through three different independent elements called “bubbles” –due to its curvy form and apparent impenetrability- where the bathrooms are discretely found.

The “bubbles” are autonomous architectural elements that can be developed independently from the atmosphere surrounding them, yet they keep a functional interior use and influences the space it occupies through its volume. The “bubbles” are created using a metallic structure wrapped in a double stone surface on the inside and outside.

All the pieces that form the bubbles are put in a way that they distribute independently different atmospheres and functions in their surroundings, without splitting the space or interrupting the façade’s continuity.  As a result, different spaces were created. All of them with the necessary privacy and with all the conditions for an adequate use.

The division between rooms are made through big furniture, made to fit. The main bedroom’s furniture is made of natural oak tree wood, and the guest room with white lacquer. The main piece of furniture not only is made from oak wood and divides the main bedroom with the living room, but has the necessary storage space in both sides that adapts its internal configuration to the bathroom’s entrance.

Natural, traditional and timeless materials, such as stone, wood and metals were employed. The beauty, nature and properties of the materials are kept, yet investigation and innovative techniques to manipulate and install the materials are continuously employed and will not be abandoned. These are important characteristics of the project and study. The project’s concept and functionality will follow the guidelines of implementing a specific material in each constructed volumetric space, while successively mixing in materials when there is a needed modification in geometry or volume. Simultaneously, generating a variety of atmospheres and finishes that will give the property a unique personality. Plus, when crafting all these elements in the workshop, production time is notoriously reduced.