Meow Meow

So, picture this: a top-floor apartment in downtown Madrid, a vibrant part of the city near a park and the Manzanares river. It’s 1935 social housing, and when this architect—the founder of GMO Studio—first laid eyes on it, the place was a wreck. We’re talking abandoned for a decade, broken windows, and pigeons literally calling it home. Inside? A mess of tiny, disconnected rooms: a cramped entrance, a narrow hallway, and a “strange living room”. But where others saw decay, he saw raw potential, a blank slate for experimentation. He co-designed this transformation with his friend Anakubas, and now shares it with his wife, Ela.

Their mission was clear: create a space that felt bright, inherently spacious, and utterly fluid. They even pulled inspiration from Japanese architectural principles, specifically the idea of lower-placed furniture to amplify the sense of height within high ceilings. That’s a classic move to manipulate perception and make a space feel grander than its physical dimensions.

Surgical Demolition & Smart Re-Programming The single most impactful intervention was the strategic removal of most internal walls. This wasn’t just aesthetic; it was about fundamentally re-shaping the apartment’s program and flow.

The kitchen, now a large, inviting zone, was boldly relocated to the front of the apartment.
That old, ochre-colored hallway? Reimagined as a dedicated laundry room.
The living room, office, and bedroom were all integrated into one expansive, multi-functional area, seamlessly connecting to a small balcony. This created a much more natural and intuitive daily living experience. Even the original wooden beams, hidden for years, were exposed and left visible after stripping away the false ceiling, further enhancing that open, airy feel.
Resourceful Hacks & Bespoke Craft This isn’t about lavish spending; it’s about clever material intelligence and custom solutions. The architect, with his deep interest in how everyday objects, their form, function, and material, impact our experience, has essentially turned his home into a living laboratory. It’s packed with raw samples and prototypes, constantly fueling new ideas.

Take the kitchen. It’s a prime example of leveraging affordable base elements for a high-end, custom look. The structure is standard IKEA, but it’s been elevated with custom doors and countertops from Kubra. That’s how you get a bespoke feel without breaking the bank. The pale green cabinets offer a subtle contrast to the white walls, intentionally muted so as not to overwhelm the space. He views his kitchen as a “workshop,” where tools, spices, and food are openly visible, sparking new ideas. And forget mundane fridge magnets; they’ve created a unique collection of “meaningful souvenirs” by simply attaching magnets to the back of cherished objects.

Even the dining table and chairs are a testament to resourceful design thinking. These pieces were designed and built specifically for this space using extra materials from another client project. This smart re-use of “spare materials and leftovers” is a recurring theme, ensuring nothing goes to waste.

Crafting Atmosphere: Light, Layers, and Living Stories The living room is a designed “calm, relaxing space” meant for unwinding. They intentionally chose “slow furniture” to enhance the feeling of spaciousness. It’s a gallery of the designer’s own creations—many of them prototypes, still “incomplete”—alongside objects that carry personal stories and meaning. A particularly unique piece is the collector’s table, designed to display collections; here, it showcases his fascination with fishing reels and his personal collection. The sofa, ingeniously crafted from scrap wood, even doubles as a guest bed by simply removing the back cushions. The central bookshelf is integrated directly into the wall.

Lighting is a significant focus. In the kitchen, lights are either wall-mounted or low pendants. The living room features unique lamps, including the “sunset lamp,” a design co-created with Injia, which beautifully recreates the warm, gradient hues of a sunset. This space is in a constant state of flux, with new ideas emerging daily—they even discovered the exposed beams could be used to creatively hang laundry or bed sheets.

The floor throughout the apartment is a distinctive composite of cement resin and albero sand—a type of sand found in Spain, notably used in bullfight pits. The designer enjoys the playful notion that his furniture is like “toys scattered in a sand pit” on this unique surface.

Ingenious Solutions for Intimate Spaces The bedroom’s floor plan is “a little bit weird,” prompting the designers to create a central island that cleverly incorporates both the bed and a desk. This desk ingeniously transitions from a functional workspace by day to a convenient bedside table at night—a true “Frankenstein of a lot of leftovers” from the workshop. Even a standard IKEA wardrobe was strategically rotated to perfectly fit into a corner, its white color ensuring a neutral presence. The bedroom receives the most beautiful light in the house, with acacia trees outside creating captivating shadows on the walls in the afternoon.

An incredibly practical storage solution was found above the removed ceilings, providing extra space for seasonal clothes and design prototypes, accessed by a versatile ladder. And talk about flexibility: the TV, mounted on a small rolling stand made from IKEA pieces, moves effortlessly from the bedroom to the living room for movie nights or dinners.

The bathroom, centrally located, also showcases clever problem-solving. By extending the albero sand onto the walls, it evokes a “cave-like” feel. To reduce visual clutter, a single large mirror was installed, making the space feel more expansive. For the soap holder, a scrap piece of marble found on the street was fixed to the wall, highlighting a love for contrasting textures. Despite having no windows, the bathroom is surprisingly bright due to circular windows added to either end, allowing light to pass from the kitchen and living room, often eliminating the need for artificial lighting during the day.

A Philosophy of Purposeful Design Throughout the apartment, the designer’s core philosophy shines through: a deep fascination with boat designs, where every last space is optimized and ergonomic. He thrives on finding “specific solutions to specific problems” and deliberately operates “contrary to a standardization,” declaring, “I really hate the standard”. The values he passionately pursues in his work are diversity, adaptation, balance, functionality, versatility, and, above all, the provocation of emotion and wonder.

This Madrid apartment isn’t just a stunning renovation; it’s a living manifesto for thoughtful, personal design, proving that limitations can spark the most inventive and unique solutions, turning a forgotten space into a true design marvel!