Evading Renovation Convention: Lara House in Madrid by Hanghar.

Housed in a 1970’s building in Madrid, Hanghar’s renovation of this 65sqm apartment offers an open and undefined backdrop for its inhabitants. Flexibility is key to this bare beauty as the home’s potential feels unhindered by spatial configurations or its simple but punchy material palette.

Born in a response to the rapid real estate bubble the city is currently in, the home distances itself from market-driven logic and offers a flexible system capable of evading prefixed and conventional definitions.

The project builds on the studio’s spatial investigation originally carried out in their first project — Ronda House. The home was an exercise of limited resources, with the reduction of spatial, material and technological solutions allowing for maximum flexibility of use.

Lara House similarly is understood as a spatial system indifferent to the site which it is implemented in. “The system, conceptually generic whilst physically specific, negates any relationship to perimeter, program nor orientation,” explains the Hanghar team. “Solely the appearance of the home’s original fireplace and the cooking area creates a visual reference that grounds one’s presence in the space.”

The original apartment is subdivided into four equal rooms, each measuring 3.5 x 3.5 m, creating a spatial isotropy connected through large, central openings articulating the home. The placement of mirrored surfaces across the home dilutes the project’s limits and amplifies a spatial system eager to expand itself beyond the physical space in which it is applied.

The floor abstracts the traditional clay tile commonly found in homes of the area with a continuous, scaleless red linoleum sheeting. The ceiling, covered in enamel, amplifies the lights and colours present in the home while the cooking area, made out of stainless steel and mirrors, simply disappears.

Almost like a blank canvas, this aseptic interior invites inhabitants to make their own mark.

Related: Garden House in La Rioja, Spain by Hanghar.

[Images courtesy of Hanghar. Photography by Luis Díaz Díaz.]