gon architects renovates madrid apartment for vogue fashion photographer

a journey through time for M.R house 

gon architects and ana torres intertwine past and present for this meticulous apartment renovation in the heart of madrid. the project was first commissioned in january 2016 by M.R., a prestigious fashion photographer who lived in new york for many years and who works for vogue USA among other magazines.

named ‘M.R house’, the project is the result of a complex rehabilitation, built by multiple layers of different periods with a high level of detail and finishes that reveal the multiplicity of its transformations over the years; a journey through time, a meticulous work of material and spatial archeology, in which the artisanal processes are vindicated, that dives into a past in which elements of the future have been introduced to live a present that retains the charm of the original apartment.

images © imagen subliminal

the 175 sqm residence is located on the third floor of a 1900s building in madrid’s leganitos street. architects gonzalo pardo and anna torres explain that when they first visited the house, they were most struck by the ‘decadent bourgeois atmosphere’ and ‘a certain magical flair’. a flair that they attribute to the spatial-material characteristics intrinsic to this type of large-scale housing, such as the hierarchical structure of concatenated rooms, its thick load-bearing walls, the marble and slate checkerboard floors, the papered walls, the large number of floor-to-ceiling doors of different formats and transparencies, the presence of three fireplaces, and the high ceilings topped by perimeter moldings and central rosettes.

the challenge of the project was clear: to preserve the charm of the original house while integrating into the new design the many stories that the house already contains. faced with the idea of making the architecture of the house disappear without leaving any trace of what it was, the idea was to work with memory as another project material, in an intervention capable of maintaining the ‘ghost’ of the twentieth century but brought into the twenty first century.

the renovation, which lasted five years and involved different project phases and necessary licenses, seeks the coexistence between the structural, spatial and original material values of the house, and those that contemporary technology translates into domestic comforts that make the house a comfortable and more sustainable place.

the design of the plurality of domestic spaces in the house has been carried out thanks to two distinct strategies: one that reuses, benefits and reinterprets the most identifying elements of the house, such as the 22 existing doors, or the 955 slate and marble tiles present in the original pavements, which are classified as inventory. this meticulous and delicate work methodology—almost surgical—, allowed the architects to clean, approach and discover the project, which facilitated its relocation, individually or assembled, in the floor of the new house, and thus gave it a second life.

all those elements that couldn’t be preserved and recovered, such as moldings or fireplaces, were reinterpreted and built according to a contemporary language coherent with the house. for those other elements that were necessary but did not exist, such as the cabinet doors, certain existing decorative patterns were digitized and pantographed using a numerical control system, with indentations in a negative version to differentiate them from the originals, on new support materials.

the second strategy seeks to carry out spatial operations of great depth in accordance with contemporary lifestyles, such as establishing continuous and fluid connections between all the rooms of the house thanks to the demolition of partitions and the atomization of certain pieces. as, for example, the kitchen or bathrooms, where the toilet is separated from the shower and sink, blurring the boundaries between public and private, or the interior and exterior. mirrors have also been introduced, strategically placed, which are intended to generate optical illusions that duplicate and expand the rooms.

1/5

 

 

 

 

 

project info:

name: M.R HOUSE

location: madrid, spain
architecture: gon architects + ana torres

area: 175 sqm

photography: imagen subliminal

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lynne myers | designboom