The House of Curtains (Casa de las Cortinas) in Granada, Spain by GRX Arquitectos.

Young Spanish firm GRX Arquitectos pioneers experimental design, collaborating with artisans and artists for each project and viewing themselves as part of an evolving professional community rather than a closed-ranks firm. The House of Curtains, or Casa de las Cortinas, sought to bring brightness back into the dimly lit apartment of a psychologist in Granada, Spain.

From the project’s seminal stages, GRX looked to Granada’s El Bañuelo 11th century Arab baths as a point of reference, a looming brick structure replete with vaulted ceilings and star-shaped skylights. The exterior facades are completely sealed, with the only illumination and ventilation coming through the perforated skylights that flood the space with light from multiple angles.

Emulating this concept in House of Curtains, GRX demolished much of the existing interior structure and adding linear rows of circular windows and wall lights throughout each and every room. Curved walls and cool tones of yellow, mint and blue add a futurist aesthetic reminiscent of a spaceship. Some concrete interior walls are left raw and exposed, a textural contrast to the rendered colourful facades.

In order to control the amount of light in various spaces, GRX created ‘mobile partitions’ by way of floor to ceiling curtains suspended on white metal rods, hence the name of the house. The different colours of the rooms and ability to choose lighter or darker spaces means the inhabitant can alter the aesthetic to suit their given mood.

[Images courtesy of GRX Architects. Photography by Javier Callejas Sevilla.]