Description of the project by Manuel Ocaña
One. It is a refurbishment work for an especially dear, single woman. The apartment is located where the sun sets in Madrid. The space is interior, configured by three bays of 17 m².
Two. She is determined about what she wants. Authentic wood pavement, geometrical floors, a tatoo as Beyonce´s and gentrifying environment with all the clichés that it involves.
Three. We decide three things. First, there should not be conventional partitions nor doors. Second, never reaching the ceiling with anything opaque. Third, and most difficult one, getting disoriented in 50 m².
Four. Spatially. Compartimentaticion is made only by furniture disposition or glass partitions. A mirroring volume with 500x221x221 cm. dimensions allows hiding, misleading and amplifying the space.
Five. Materiality. IKEA furniture is packaged into formwork board boxes. The structure of glass partitions is made out of crude steel material, 10.10.1 mm. “U” shaped profiles and 30.15.1 mm tubes. All 166 glass pieces embedded in those air-walls are all the same size, fixed with old black putty glazier. They are 3 mm. thick, which increases transparency and anti-reflection issues that are not achieved with common and thicker laminated glasses.
Six. Three sixes, Three Facts. At this housing scale is better not to project installations along the ceiling, but getting them through the floor and out on the walls. The encounter between baseboards bouxes and these hydraulic tiles with geometric and coloured patterns has to be mirrored, anyting else just doesn´t make sense. And once again, it is confirmed that a centered column into a space is always desirable and useful.
