Oriented strand board panels can slide back and forth to create a flexible floor plan whilst concealing utilities in this family apartment remodelled for a single inhabitant in Madrid by TallerDE2 Architects (+ movie).
TallerDE2 Architects renovated the 68.5-square-metre apartment, now named Pop-up House, for a "recently emancipated 30-something" inhabitant.
The local studio removed existing partitions that created a warren of rooms in the former family home, allowing for a more flexible open-plan space.
The architects covered the remaining skeleton wall structure with oriented strand board (OSB). They then tidied utilities away behind hatches and installed a series of sliding doors to form moveable partitions.
"By erasing the dispensable partitions related to an obsolete domesticity, we get rid of those traces foreign to the new inhabitant," said the architects.
The apartment is made up of 54 separate units. They unfold to reveal hidden compartments and nooks, creating a flexible space that expands and contracts with the needs of the inhabitant.
Hatches open to reveal small windows between adjacent rooms, while others pull down to form tabletops. Sliding doors conceal bookshelves and a television screen, and others are used to divide or merge rooms.
In the kitchen, a table can be stowed away in a cupboard, while the oven is hidden behind a panel and the sink is recessed into a wall.
The bathroom, bedroom and living area all follow the same concept. Fluorescent orange-pink stripes show the joins in the cabinetry and black pull handles indicate doorways to closets and separate rooms.
The architects drew inspiration from a set of travelling trunks designed by New York artist Toland Grinnell, out of which unfurl utilities to provide the user with everything they require for a portable pied-à-terre.
"We do not take a bathroom as a whole, but as an addition of a shower, a washbasin, a toilet, a mirror, a linen closet, etc," explained the architects.
Behind the wooden panels that conceal the bathroom, a tessellating pattern of blue and grey cubes line the shower cubicle and an alcove containing a bathroom mirror, offering an accent of colour to the otherwise plain wooden interior.
This same pattern with alternate colours is used on a square of wallpaper by the bed headboard, and behind the television.
"Tiles and wallpaper provide this inner space with colour and design typical of the elegant linings of classic suitcases," said the team.
Lamps extend out from the wooden walls on metallic retractable arms. They have bright pink-orange flexes that match the painted edges of the sliding partitions.
Photography and video are by Miguel de Guzmán.
Project credits:
Architecture studio: TallerDE2 Arquitectos
Architects: Arantza Ozaeta Cortazar, Alvaro Martin Fidalgo
Collaborator: Cruz Calleja
Construction: Fedeclima, Paco Ferrero
Carpenters: José Leal, Fernando González, Daniel Leal
