Project Name: Change of Use Project
Architects: OOIIO Arquitectura
Lead Architect: Joaquín Millán Villamuelas
Team: Joaquín Millán Villamuelas, Alba Peña Fernández, Sandra Butautaite
Builder: Construcciones y Reformas Carrión
Location: Carabanchel, Madrid, Spain
Area: 55 m2
Year: 2021
Photographs: Javier de Paz
New opportunities for obsolete spaces. OOIIO Architecture completes the transformation of a former Shop into an Apartment in Madrid. In 55 m2 this colorful home concentrates what is necessary for contemporary urban life. The rectangular space that configured the former store is embraced by an “L” of cabinets and kitchen, in such a way that it frees the space receiving inside as much natural light as possible. Golden slats direct that light and play with privacy as users need.
Change of Use Project from a former Shop to a Home in Madrid. New opportunities for obsolete spaces. Society is evolving at breakneck speed. Habits change, our way of life is transformed towards hybrid models where the digital and the analog coexist creating new ways of buying, living, traveling… Cities, of course, are also changing following these socio-economic movements. This small project to transform a haberdashery into an apartment is a consequence of all this.
Change of Use Projects is very common today in large areas of cities like Madrid. Where there used to be a neighborhood shop, a car park, or an upholstery workshop, today rises apartments. Families are different now and not all of them need a house with 3 or 4 bedrooms, kitchen, and garden. Nowadays there are also people who live alone or couples without children or people who are passing through a city for a specific time.
This trend can be seen from a negative perspective, if we look at the loss of the commercial, economic and social fabric that shaped the neighborhoods a few decades ago; or from a positive point of view if we value the opportunity for recycling, new investments, and revitalization of degraded areas brought about by these Changes of Use Projects.
In just 55 m2 this apartment concentrates what is necessary for contemporary urban life. The rectangular space that configured the old store is now embraced by an “L” of cabinets and kitchen, in such a way that it frees the entire space, to make the most of it and receive in the new “living room-working area-dining room-bedroom” as much natural light as possible from outside. Some golden slats direct that light and remove or give privacy to the room as users need. On the other hand, the old commercial warehouse is used now as a bathroom, being hidden behind the “L” of cabinets.
The materials used in the project are simple and cheap, appropriate to the scale of the intervention, without giving up making the most of its expressive opportunities, filling everything with color, textures, and nuances. The combination of materials is very important in this small house. Two large rectangles are open up on the fronts of the mint-colored cabinets, framed with white marble and tiled with coral ceramic tiles, intentionally placed in front of the windows so that natural light makes them vibrate. In the narrow bathroom, bright turquoise tiles are also used, reflecting the light, to make the small available space more sensory. The gold of the directional slats is repeated in the details of the cabinets, lights, and the veining of the marble on the floor. A small apartment that recycles an obsolete space, designed for 21st-century urbanites.
