Type: Renovation
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Loft I
Located in a 1955 concrete frame building, one of the first to flank the section of Madrid’s Paseo de la Castellana laid out north of the Nuevos Ministerios, Loft I is the renovation of a dwelling completely disfigured after decades of interior demolition and use as an office.
It is conceptually linked to the European avant-garde, which defined the modular, flexible and multipurpose space, and literally to the North American industrial transformations, which defined the loft as a way of recycling disused spaces and inaugurating a life without geometric or hourly divisions.
The old terrace and the original façade had completely disappeared, but the renovation recovered them and carried out meticulous restorations of elements from the 1950s, such as the unique lacquered steel railing and ceramic tiling of various qualities and shades, which were restored to their original appearance and position.
The project received in New York the international award “Best Sustainable Apartment Renovation Architecture in the World 2024”.
Even laundry and grooming: Loft I naturalizes domestic functions. It leaves nothing hidden. It opens up the space and dilutes the boundaries of the house, including the interior limits. It entrusts the entire dwelling to the architecture, not just a reassuringly photographable part.
In Loft I, production, rest, gathering, city air and vegetation, art and body do not reside in separate rooms.
The materials used avoid the old separation between inside and outside, public and private, as in turn does the organization of the dwelling. The programmatic continuity is reflected in the material continuity.
It blurs the boundaries between housing and city, in the same way that urban and domestic activities intermingle today. The objects and voids that make up the interior, its transparent, black or colored planes deployed three-dimensionally, the floating garden of the house, the trees in the street, the city, form a continuity through scalar leaps that become gigantic as the multiple others that make up Madrid participate.
Loft I defends the reality of the contemporary user, for whom connections, genders and generations are fluid and positive qualities. It is a material and real attempt to build inclusion.
The floor plan is designed to maximize the use of natural light, eliminating the need to use electricity for lighting at any time of day. Differences in the angle of incidence between winter and summer warm the house in the cold months and reduce direct sunlight in the summer
There is a permanent pressure difference between the opposing facades of the building. Due to the location of the openings and the internal continuity, natural cross-ventilation is immediate at any time of day or night. The design of the external carpentry and the absence of internal hinged elements keep the openings stable and therefore the ventilation and healthiness of the air.
Once again, the absence of partitions is a real tool for sustainability and energy efficiency. The fireplace, which in the 1950s was a wall in the representative room of the house, has become a freestanding and central element. Its contribution can now be used throughout the loft. The black mineral wool, placed horizontally under the ceiling slab, acts as an insulator and heat distributor.
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SEPE Offices
SEPE is Spain’s national public employment service. We won the public competition to design a compact architectural intervention consisting of office spaces for this important institution. Although the project is relatively simple, it is located within an existing building. The “site” therefore occupies part of the ground and second floors of a residential block in a recently developed neighborhood of San Sebastián.
Located in the north of Spain, San Sebastián is a vibrant city defined by the meeting of sea and rock, and by a particular condition of light.
Also, it is the city of the two lights of Europe. The first is the dense, atmospheric light of Northern Europe, a deep, material blue, as seen in La Concha Bay and captured in The Comb of the Winds by Eduardo Chillida. The second is the clear, white light of Southern Europe, associated with public life and the use of the street. Together, these contrasting lights define the city’s spatial and cultural identity.
The project seeks to create a space with a strong public character, not through imposed symbolism but through qualities intrinsic to the city’s culture and environment.
The solid blue light of the North of Europe. La Concha Bay, San Sebastian.
Our approach was to unify these different lights, embracing their diversity while establishing a meaningful relationship with the exterior and the surrounding geography. That is, with nature within the city. In this context, light becomes our primary material.
At the core of the project, a central vertical space is filled with the white light of Southern Europe. A system of suspended white panels reflects and diffuses light, bathing the interior with a clean, soft, and transparent luminosity, while increasing the overall amount of natural light.
The perimeter of the intervention enhances the presence of natural light through a blue glass façade supported by a black steel structure. This element evokes the dense, colored light of Northern Europe, producing a heterogeneous and vibrant atmosphere. Perforated wooden panels filter the incoming light while protecting the offices from excessive exposure and external views.
Above, a transparent skylight allows visual continuity through the interior of the block, while also acknowledging the presence of the residential terraces and domestic life on the upper floors.
These two types of light, dense and diffuse, are familiar to those who inhabit the space. They form part of their everyday landscape. At the same time, they contribute to the public character required by the institution, transforming the project into an open and welcoming space for all.
