Many houses in one
Complete refurbishment of a flat in the centre of Madrid
The purpose of this project is to renew an old flat in the centre of Madrid to turn it into a transformable space.
The project hinges around two complementary strategies. Firstly, an open space is configured, and the whole programme is grouped and arranged around an L-shaped band on two sides. This band includes the access to the household, the outer façade windows, a folding bed, the storage space, a complete kitchen, a fold-down auxiliary table, access to the bathroom and the washing machine. It optimises the spatial distribution and compacts all the functions so that everyday activities can benefit from as much space as possible, all the while adapting to the geometry of the apartment. Secondly, a fitted screen on one of the sides can be deployed from the wall to create different domestic arrangements, by closing the bedroom, the kitchen or dividing the house into two.
Wooden rails serve to construct the whole. They are the attachment points for the screen and establish the lighting of the spaces.
The screen works in unison with hinged and foldable devices and with the lighting to configure a flexible space that serves to alter the ‘domestic stages’ (as if it were a ‘domestic theatre’) with simple operations, turning one house into a multiplicity of homes.
PROJECT
Many houses in one
1. One space, many spaces. Biombombastic is as surprising as the paper of an origami figure. One simple surface is folded and unfolded depending on the domestic configuration to adapt to the everyday life of its inhabitants.
Multiplying spaces.
2. Black box. Biombombastic is part of a series of transformable occupational proposals that have been developed by elii. In these proposals, the inside of the households is configured as a small domestic theatre (#domestictheater): small black boxes where every day is enjoyed within a different stage.
Every house is a theatre.
3. Experiments with oneself. Blackboxing (#openblackbox) domestic spaces serves to rehearse, test, experiment and prototype experiences, habits, relationships and everyday life (#livinginablackbox).
Every day is a rehearsal.
4. Open or closed, but continuous. The screen is a physical separation, but its materials, partly opaque and partly translucent, allow light to flow from one space to another. Divisions that allow continuity.
