Project: House of Curtains
Architects: GRX Arquitectos
Collaborators: José María Rueda Romero, Ana María Aldana Vidal, Inma García Ramírez, Lourdes Navarro Martínez, Gabriella Buttitta
Builder: Construcciones Requena-Asenjo S.L.
Location: Granada, Spain
Year 2019
Photo Credits: Javier Callejas Sevilla
House of Curtains, or La Casa de las Cortinas in Spanish, takes a residential renovation to the next level, transforming a dark and dreary space in the city of Granada, Spain. Curtains and drapes become a solution allowing natural light to filter through, inspired by the old Bañuelo de Granada. Dating back to the XI century, these Arab baths — the oldest and best preserved in Spain — didn’t have a concrete external façade, but were illuminated by skylights between large, vaulted spaces.
Architects at the studio call the project “an experiment with light” for the challenge they accepted in bringing natural illumination to even the most remote room of the apartment. Of course pre-existing walls diving the spaces were broken down, replaced instead with flowing curtains in soft colors that separate without completely or definitively closing off spaces.
As a consequence of this constructive experiment, the final need arose to resolve the control of the new lighting according to the uses at different times of the day, for which it was decided to create mobile partitions using blackout curtains that allowed or prevented the passage of light. Through the control of light and the use of color, the house interacts with the moods of the inhabitant, adapting in use and time in the different rooms.
To increase the passage of light, the few walls left were dotted with numerous small, round windows, somewhere between the portholes of a submarine and the windows of a futuristic residence. The cold color on the walls, which span from yellow to blue, serve to add a luminous effect to interiors. Others, meanwhile, were left in exposed concrete for a rough and raw finish, which complements the furnishings and accessories found throughout.
