Candy-Coloured Terrace: Casa Witiza in Madrid by Beatriz Alés Atelier.

Captivatingly stark, Beatriz Alés Atelier has renovated a terrace house in Madrid, juxtaposing its newly spacious interior with the building’s historical shell. Whimsical colour blocking interplays with curved elements to provide an unobtrusive canvas for all those little artefacts that make a place home.

Located in the Carabanchel area, the project is one of 640 terraced homes in the historic Tercio y Terol quarter, a social housing project designed in the 1940s by Rita Fernández Queimadelos. With its 70sqm in size, the original layout was intended for a family of eight and was forgivingly cramped and highly compartmentalised.

Now home to a young couple, the interior was reconfigured to suit their needs. With respect to the external dimensions, and maintaining the original façades, the remodelling project set out to create a more continuous, interconnected composition. Natural flow was introduced from the outdoor patio to the ground floor and the ensuing floor above.

With a sense of openness in mind, new geometry delineates the volume. On the ground floor, the partitions have been removed to create a unified living area, with a pistachio steel column forming the centrepiece of the area – playfully matching the front door. Each floor has a new distinctive colour scheme adding a dynamic jolt to the project. The pistachio column stands out against navy blue floors and white walls while a candy pink defines the staircase and powder room. A yellow handrail dazzles against the pink as it zags up the staircase.

On the first floor, a support structure for the three-sloped roof is left exposed – doubling as a mezzanine. Independent of this feature, a curved partition separates the bedroom and studio, skylights peeping out from the ceiling above. The pistachio continues upstairs in a more muted fashion covering the textured floors and the walls of the bathroom. Against the melange of the candy-coloured colour scheme, the mostly white bedroom feels quiet and serene.

The ‘visual noise’ of the space has been significantly reduced by getting rid of the skirting boards, using hidden doorframes, and limiting the number of different materials on view.

Simple yet effective, this remodel by Beatriz Alés Atelier pairs a minimalist framework with maximalist pigments in a design that’s both open and welcoming.

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[Images courtesy of Beatriz Alés Atelier. Photography by José Hevia.]