Freedom encased in steel

From the very beginning, the task for the architectural firm was clear: The team from La Reina Obrera in Madrid had a lot of space at their disposal, but were tasked with designing a house on a hillside that would blend in with the rugged beauty of the central Spanish landscape and offer a perfect view from every room. The solution: The entire 260 m² living space is spread across a single level, cantilevered on steel supports to float above the hillside. An open lower level adds a shaded terrace for hot summers and a container-like workshop clad in wood. While on one side the façade – apart from the narrow ribbon windows – is hermetically covered with brown corrugated sheets, the other long side opens almost completely with large sliding windows onto an L-shaped wooden terrace that wraps around the building.   

The design of the interior is just as exciting as the views. True to the motto “never feel confined”, there are virtually no enclosed rooms. Instead, all functional units in the spacious interior are demarcated by free-standing, thick walls, which, however, never touch the façade or ceiling. These walls are often combined with built-in furniture, for example in the entrance area, where a free-standing volume contains a guest toilet and a cupboard for the owner’s baseball cap collection. A work area and a guest room area can also be accessed from there. However, the real focal point is the immense cooking, dining and living area, which extends completely along the fully glazed façade to the terrace. Here, another free-standing wall houses the main kitchen unit with the cooking island in front of it, while an impressive dining table for 12 people runs alongside.

The living area – including reading nook and play area – is followed first by the master bedroom, with separate shower and toilet cubicles, and finally by a children’s room, which can also be divided later if required. A bright, suspended ceiling extends continuously above the loosely connected units. This is indirectly illuminated by lamps mounted on the partition walls, transforming it into a seamless, uninterrupted continuum. For this purpose, the hanging lights above the kitchen unit and dining table are suspended from wall-mounted cantilever arms. The switches and socket outlets from the Gira E2 design line in pure white matt tie in perfectly with this stringent clarity. Very simple, but simply special.