The intervention by MAIO Architects comprises a long corridor, separate rooms, a closed kitchen, and a hierarchical organization of spaces, where the furniture serves as the walls.
Structurally, circulation is organized by curved wooden elements that integrate storage, define the different uses, and create a continuous sequence. Mirrored doors are integrated into these volumes, multiplying perspectives and constantly transforming the perception of the interior.
Argumosa Housing Renovation by MAIO Architects. Photograph by José Hevia.
Project description by MAIO Architects
Located in a multi-family residential building from the 1970s, the apartment originally displayed many of the defining features of the housing typologies of the period: an endless corridor, an excessive compartmentalization, a closed kitchen, strongly marked spatial hierarchies, and floor areas reduced to the minimum standards required by regulations.
In contrast to the existing condition, the project proposes a spatially continuous landscape, distancing itself from the fragmented logic that originally organized the dwelling. The intervention redefines the layout through the removal of partition walls, transferring the role of structuring and articulating space to the furniture. The result is an arrangement capable of combining a unified reading of the whole with the emergence of inhabitable niches, designed to accommodate diverse and evolving uses, where collective and private realms intertwine in a subtle manner.
Through the abstraction and formal autonomy of the furniture, and by means of large mirrored doors, a system of spatial relationships is established in which the boundaries between different areas become blurred. Reflections multiply perspectives and generate an ever-changing perception of the interior, returning a kaleidoscopic image of the space.
