Transforming Room Inside Barcelona Apartment by P-M-A-A

P-M-A-A have designed a collection of furniture and joinery elements for a child’s bedroom in Barcelona that can be combined and transformed into various shapes and configurations. Replete with hiding nooks, reading pillows, and climb-able stairs, it’s essentially a highbrow indoor cubby house.

Forming a 2 x 2 sqm cube when conjoined, the collection of four objects was born out of P-M-A-A pondering philosophical design concepts such as “room versus furniture; furniture as an artefact; artefact as an object; a set of objects as a collection”. Currently, they reside inside a 30sqm room with 3.5m high ceilings. This lucky kid scored the big room!

The furniture set includes a staircase, a closet, a platform, and a cushion. Each component is a different material and colour, including the natural timber frame, mirrored cabinets, white cushions and red stairs. This was intentional so that the elements could be completely separated if desired and still function as independent objects without looking lost or out of place. The concept aims to allow the set to change over time, evolving just as the child does.

Wardrobe storage is concealed within the mirrored triangle, with a little surprise party trick by way of multi-coloured LED disco lights that trace the inner edges of the cabinets. The block colours, clean lines and geometric shapes serve in effective contrast to the rustic elements of the surrounding apartment, with its peeling layers of paint, original beams and cracked traditional floor tiles.

Though mathematical and highly ‘designed’ in its puzzle-like form, P-M-A-A’s collection of objects have an inevitably playful appeal. We can totally imagine wanting to go and hang out at this kids house if we were school friends. Actually, excuse us while we lament the fact that we didn’t have custom, architecturally progressive childhood bedrooms.