gon architecture studio, led by Gonzalo Pardo was commissioned to renovate a former apartment in the center of Madrid, in Puerta del Sol.  An urban space with many references in our contemporary culture, and according to the architects paying special attention to Almodóvar cinema.

Taking as the backbone to design the renovation the concept of life alone (each time a more common option in our society), the architect focuses on giving an answer to this way of living in a 40 m² apartment located nearby from Puerta del Sol whose owner Dany, a French woman living in Paris, chooses as a second option to live at different times of the year.
The gon firm proposed the creation of a single space where the different functions of the domestic program receive a response in a fluid and interconnected way. Color becomes the protagonist of the renovation, taking the spotlight on a chest of drawers lacquered in blue RAL 5005, a piece for the storage of the house, and where a secret room is hidden: the bathroom.
 
"Dany's house seeks to be a good house for a good life, alone or with someone. A home expanded in the city and increased in the Network; rich in details that, in a very few square meters, she contemplates and has the ability to adapt to different spatio-temporal situations."
 

Project description by gon
 

‘There is another world, but it is in this one’
Paul Éluard


Living alone is a common form of domesticity that has been increasing in European cities, this responds to a new social organization that is typical of the most developed cultures, which has consequences on the ‘traditional’ ways of living. This argument is the starting point of the renovation of a 40 m² apartment located near the Puerta del Sol that, Dany, a retired French woman living in Paris, mother of two grown children, a tango, wine and technology lover, and fascinated by Madrid, acquired to live alone and settle in at different times of the year.

Instead of the idea of separated rooms and corridors, as it was in the original house, this small and individual pied à terre is projected and organized as a single room where the entire domestic program, no matter public or private, is connected by a gray porcelain floor. The most emblematic feature of this house is a chest-cabinet lacquered in a blue RAL 5005 that adapts like a glove to the space and is located in the heart of the house; it contains and brings together the storage of the house and hides inside a secret room: the bathroom. This space for the care and maintenance of the body is naturally illuminated and visually connected to the bedroom through a large interior window that changes its opacity according to the privacy needed at different moments.

Dany's house seeks to be a good house for a good life, alone or in company. A home that’s expanded in the city and augmented through the network; rich in details and that, in very few square meters, has the ability to adapt to different space-time situations: from meeting with friends, inviting her children for a season or simply enjoying the space alone; the house is an optimistic and contemporary urban refuge where to live the Madrid dream: dressed in red, within a space and with objects that look like they came out of an Almodóvar movie.

Read more
Read less

More information

Label
Architects
Text
gon. Architect.- Gonzalo Pardo.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Design team
Text
Carol Linares, María Cecilia Cordero, Cristina Ramirez, Iván Rando, Kostís Toulgaridis.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Builder
Text
Serviteco Obras S.L.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Area
Text
40 m².
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Dates
Text
2021.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Manufacturers
Text
Metallic carpentry.- Cortizo, Velux (roof window).
Kitchen.- Barronkress S.L.
Locksmith.- Rótulos Argoneón S.L.U.
Lighting.- Oliva iluminación S.A.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Photography
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
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.
Read more
Published on: October 16, 2021
Cite: "Solahouse. Apartment renovation in Puerta del Sol by gon" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/solahouse-apartment-renovation-puerta-del-sol-gon> ISSN 1139-6415
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...