Lofts in Spain: 10 Apartments Making the Most of Vertical Space

Written by Agustina Iñiguez | Translated by Antonia Piñeiro
Published on April 27, 2024

Faced with the various ways of inhabiting that characterize contemporary societies and their adaptability to future uses in architecture, lofts represent an opportunity to design spaces ranging from storage areas to living, study, leisure, or even resting spaces, both for their residents and potential visitors. Depending on their scales, sizes, and proportions, these elevated spaces allow for the optimization of interior environments in apartments that, in some cases, lack sufficient square footage to perform these types of functions at ground level and have a certain height to accommodate them.

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While there isn't a singular way to arrange a mezzanine in relation to another space, it's essential to establish a connection between both environments, considering both the support of its weight and the activities to be carried out. The use of movable, fixed, or integrated staircases in various types of furniture facilitates access to these elevated spaces and serves as a common tool in defining such intermediate spaces.

Through the use of lightweight wooden or metal structures and the employment of opaque or translucent enclosures to provide greater privacy and/or intimacy, the loft is often conceived as an additional horizontal plane that, by increasing its usable surface area, brings flexibility, versatility, and functionality to contemporary living.

In this way, numerous architecture professionals aim to consider not only the surface area of apartments but rather the entirety of their free volume in the effort to transform the ways of inhabiting in their proposals and, in turn, fulfill other functions, as seen in Penthouse H by Langarita Navarro Arquitectos in Madrid. Here, the loft is proposed as a solution capable of simultaneously resolving structure and climate control, minimizing visual impact.

Following is a selection of 10 apartment interiors in Spain that offer varied proposals for their mezzanines, optimizing living space.