An oasis of optimism. Gialla House by gon architects
11/11/2023.
[MAD] Spain
metalocus, JORGE MARTINEZ
metalocus, JORGE MARTINEZ
Architecture studio gon architects has been in charge of renovating a home for an Italian woman from a town north of Milan, located near kilometer zero of La Puerta del Sol, in Madrid, Spain.
The architects follow the popular Italian expression "il dolce far niente" to project the reform, which names a way of life linked to the pleasure of doing nothing, possibly being this idle and idle attitude one of the ways of being in the world that most They activate human creativity.
The architects decided to design the home in a way that renounces haste and opts for a restful existence. In addition to following the requirements of the client who requested a pragmatic home to enjoy.
The architects follow the popular Italian expression "il dolce far niente" to project the reform, which names a way of life linked to the pleasure of doing nothing, possibly being this idle and idle attitude one of the ways of being in the world that most They activate human creativity.
The architects decided to design the home in a way that renounces haste and opts for a restful existence. In addition to following the requirements of the client who requested a pragmatic home to enjoy.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Floor plan. Gialla House by gon architect.
Section plan. Gialla House by gon architect.
Axonometry plan. Gialla House by gon architect.
Origin photography. Gialla House by gon architect.
Gialla House designed by the architecture studio gon architects is a renovation of a dark and compartmentalized attic space with wooden beams, which becomes a bright, open and flexible place through two simple and precise actions such as demolishing and equipping .
A perimeter storage system is incorporated that frees up the center of the house, which becomes a large flexible and multifunctional rectangular room, linked to a terrace facing south-west. This room becomes the space where most of the domestic actions occur.
The Gialla house is an oasis of optimism in the middle of the city, an urban refuge that, compared to the exclusively functional machine-house, claims a playful and sensual, domestic space.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Pragmatic and enjoyable were the two starting requirements that Ceci, the owner of the house, suggested. An Italian woman from a town north of Milan, Cassano Magnago, lover of design, technology and the good life.
Under Ceci's premises, an attic space with wooden beams, dark and compartmentalized, is transformed into a bright, open and flexible place with two simple and precise actions such as demolishing and equipping.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
1) The existing partition walls are removed, which divided the house excessively into different rooms, poorly lit and ventilated, and which included a living-kitchen-dining room, two bedrooms, a small bathroom and a ramshackle terrace.
2) The perimeter of the house is occupied with fragments of a storage system with different heights, the main one being a permeable and linear piece of furniture with 5.60 meters long, 60 centimeters deep, 2.30 meters high and mustard yellow.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
This perimeter storage operation frees up the center of the dwelling, which becomes a large, flexible, multifunctional rectangular room measuring 7 x 2.5 meters, linked to a south-west-facing terrace. In this central space, which has few and light furnishings such as a circular table, two chairs, a sofa, a side table and a countertop with wheels, most of the domestic activities take place; it is the place to cook, eat, work, read, and even sleep thanks to a folding bed hidden in the back wall.
The program of the rest of the house includes the bedroom overlooking the multifunctional room through a window, a bathroom - with the shower separated from the toilet and sink - with double access, and a terrace linked to the central space through a step turned 30º where there are three characteristic elements of an hedonistic life: a shower, a bathtub and plants.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
The casa gialla is an oasis of optimism in the middle of the city designed for Ceci's enjoyment, alone or in company; it is an urban refuge that, as opposed to the exclusively functional house-machine, claims a playful and sensual domestic space where a non-productive time inside is possible and the senses are one more construction material.
In other words, the project favors the unexpected and contemplative life. It is possible that, lying on the mattress that covers the bathtub on the terrace on a hot summer afternoon, Ceci half asleep may come to think, as Bioy Casares says in The Invention of Morel, that the world is made up exclusively of sensations.
A perimeter storage system is incorporated that frees up the center of the house, which becomes a large flexible and multifunctional rectangular room, linked to a terrace facing south-west. This room becomes the space where most of the domestic actions occur.
The Gialla house is an oasis of optimism in the middle of the city, an urban refuge that, compared to the exclusively functional machine-house, claims a playful and sensual, domestic space.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Description of project by gon architects
There is a popular Italian expression, il dolce far niente, which names a way of life linked to the pleasure of doing nothing, being possibly this unoccupied and idle attitude one of the ways of being in the world that most activates the creativity of the human being.
With this life philosophy, which renounces the rush and bets on a quiet existence, the casa gialla is projected, the reform of a 47m2 apartment located in a building near the very central and tourist Puerta del Sol in Madrid.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
Pragmatic and enjoyable were the two starting requirements that Ceci, the owner of the house, suggested. An Italian woman from a town north of Milan, Cassano Magnago, lover of design, technology and the good life.
Under Ceci's premises, an attic space with wooden beams, dark and compartmentalized, is transformed into a bright, open and flexible place with two simple and precise actions such as demolishing and equipping.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
1) The existing partition walls are removed, which divided the house excessively into different rooms, poorly lit and ventilated, and which included a living-kitchen-dining room, two bedrooms, a small bathroom and a ramshackle terrace.
2) The perimeter of the house is occupied with fragments of a storage system with different heights, the main one being a permeable and linear piece of furniture with 5.60 meters long, 60 centimeters deep, 2.30 meters high and mustard yellow.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
This perimeter storage operation frees up the center of the dwelling, which becomes a large, flexible, multifunctional rectangular room measuring 7 x 2.5 meters, linked to a south-west-facing terrace. In this central space, which has few and light furnishings such as a circular table, two chairs, a sofa, a side table and a countertop with wheels, most of the domestic activities take place; it is the place to cook, eat, work, read, and even sleep thanks to a folding bed hidden in the back wall.
The program of the rest of the house includes the bedroom overlooking the multifunctional room through a window, a bathroom - with the shower separated from the toilet and sink - with double access, and a terrace linked to the central space through a step turned 30º where there are three characteristic elements of an hedonistic life: a shower, a bathtub and plants.
Gialla House by gon architect. Photograph by Imagen Subliminal.
The casa gialla is an oasis of optimism in the middle of the city designed for Ceci's enjoyment, alone or in company; it is an urban refuge that, as opposed to the exclusively functional house-machine, claims a playful and sensual domestic space where a non-productive time inside is possible and the senses are one more construction material.
In other words, the project favors the unexpected and contemplative life. It is possible that, lying on the mattress that covers the bathtub on the terrace on a hot summer afternoon, Ceci half asleep may come to think, as Bioy Casares says in The Invention of Morel, that the world is made up exclusively of sensations.
More information
Architects
gon architects. Gonzalo Pardo.
Project team
Carol Linares, Cristina Ramírez, María Cecilia Cordero, Kostís Toulgaridis, Celia Urbano.
Builder
REDO Construcción.
Area
47 sqm.
Dates
2022.
Location
Puerta del Sol, Madrid, Spain.
Manufacturers
Flexible Space
Miro SOFA from MADE.
Gladom SIDE TABLE from IKEA.
Dining TABLE from Rastro Madrid.
Janinge CHAIRS from IKEA.
DesignBite STOOLS from MADE.
Clock from ESPACIO BRUT.
Lighting
Spotlights SIX XS from ARCOSLIGHT
Linestra from OSRAM.
Lamp MADEDAY from FLOS, Designer Konstantin Grcic.
Lamp OBIQUE from FLOS, Designer Vincent Van Duysen.
Lamp FADO from IKEA.
Circular Lamp ALTAMIRA from BPMlighting.
Lamp GLO-BALL from FLOS.
Terrace
Acapulco CHAIR from ACAPULCO.
Miro SOFA from MADE.
Gladom SIDE TABLE from IKEA.
Dining TABLE from Rastro Madrid.
Janinge CHAIRS from IKEA.
DesignBite STOOLS from MADE.
Clock from ESPACIO BRUT.
Lighting
Spotlights SIX XS from ARCOSLIGHT
Linestra from OSRAM.
Lamp MADEDAY from FLOS, Designer Konstantin Grcic.
Lamp OBIQUE from FLOS, Designer Vincent Van Duysen.
Lamp FADO from IKEA.
Circular Lamp ALTAMIRA from BPMlighting.
Lamp GLO-BALL from FLOS.
Terrace
Acapulco CHAIR from ACAPULCO.
Photography
Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzmán + Rocío Romero).
Gonzalo Pardo. gon architects
gon is a Madrid-based architecture and design office headed by Gonzalo Pardo since 2014. His practice focuses on research and development of unique architectural projects of different scales ranging from urban planning to buildings to interior construction.
The common denominator of his works is a playful, experimental, critical and optimistic view of the contemporary. In a constant dialogue based on observation and details, their interest focuses on the creative processes of architectural design and construction, as well as the role of mediation and communication of architecture as fundamental vehicles for the transformation of the world into a more sustainable, dignified and free place.
Gonzalo Pardo has been an architect from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) since 2007, and a Doctor of Architecture since 2016. His thesis "Cuerpo y Casa: Hacia el espacio doméstico contemporáneo desde las transformaciones de la cocina y del cuarto de baño en Occidente" obtained the outstanding Cum Laude rating, and received for it the 2016-2017 Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Award and an honorable mention in the XI call for the Arquia Foundation Thesis Contest.
Since 2007 he teaches as a visiting professor at the Instituto Europeo de Diseño (IED), in Madrid; the Illiois Institute of Technology (IIT), in Chicago, United States; Lund University, in Sweden, and the Master in Collective Housing (MCH), in Madrid. He has been a professor in the Master in Architectural Communication (MaCA) and in the Master in Advanced Projects (MPAA) of the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAM. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAM.
He has been deputy curator of the Spanish pavilion at the 16th Venice Biennale, and since 2000 he has obtained 41 national and international awards, including the first prize for the remodeling of the AZCA block in Madrid in 2007; the second prizes in the international Skyscraper competitions, in New York, and Velux, in Denmark, in 2007; COAM award in 2014 for the Paréntesis curator cycle, honorable mention in the Europan 14 competition at the Barcelona location in 2017 and finalist in the FAD Awards for Architecture and Design 2020.
The common denominator of his works is a playful, experimental, critical and optimistic view of the contemporary. In a constant dialogue based on observation and details, their interest focuses on the creative processes of architectural design and construction, as well as the role of mediation and communication of architecture as fundamental vehicles for the transformation of the world into a more sustainable, dignified and free place.
Gonzalo Pardo has been an architect from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM) since 2007, and a Doctor of Architecture since 2016. His thesis "Cuerpo y Casa: Hacia el espacio doméstico contemporáneo desde las transformaciones de la cocina y del cuarto de baño en Occidente" obtained the outstanding Cum Laude rating, and received for it the 2016-2017 Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Award and an honorable mention in the XI call for the Arquia Foundation Thesis Contest.
Since 2007 he teaches as a visiting professor at the Instituto Europeo de Diseño (IED), in Madrid; the Illiois Institute of Technology (IIT), in Chicago, United States; Lund University, in Sweden, and the Master in Collective Housing (MCH), in Madrid. He has been a professor in the Master in Architectural Communication (MaCA) and in the Master in Advanced Projects (MPAA) of the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAM. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAM.
He has been deputy curator of the Spanish pavilion at the 16th Venice Biennale, and since 2000 he has obtained 41 national and international awards, including the first prize for the remodeling of the AZCA block in Madrid in 2007; the second prizes in the international Skyscraper competitions, in New York, and Velux, in Denmark, in 2007; COAM award in 2014 for the Paréntesis curator cycle, honorable mention in the Europan 14 competition at the Barcelona location in 2017 and finalist in the FAD Awards for Architecture and Design 2020.
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