This could involve anything from incorporating energy-saving techniques and solutions to the use of materials that are more environmentally friendly. Anything that contributes to spaces that are carefully curated to play a positive part in the world around them.

TAKK’s “The Day After House” aims to do exactly that. The Barcelona-based design studio recently took environmental awareness in interior design to the next level with this renovated 110-square-meter apartment in Madrid that has been “developed with the aim of updating the domestic space according to new models of use and environmental consciousness,” as discussed in a recent article.

But how does one achieve the perfect blend of “environmental consciousness” and forward-thinking (yet attractive) design aesthetics?

Firstly, focus on a strategy that redefines more traditional layouts. Rather than rely on a blend of rooms and corridors more commonly seen in apartments, the studio’s approach focuses more on the climactic specifics of each space. Though distinct, the spaces still work in tandem to save energy.

A spokesperson for the studio explains: “As if it were the layers of an onion, the spaces of the house get nested each one inside of another…as we get close to the central spaces…they get more and more insulated and have less needs in terms of extra energy.” This type of “climatic diverse distribution” is ideal for a climate like Madrid’s, where blistering heat waves make up the summer months and more intense, colder periods dominate the winter.

The next thing to consider is the materials. Here, TAKK aimed to prioritize things like wood and natural cork (both known for having low CO2 emissions) to insulate the home effectively and manage energy loss. It also doesn’t hurt that the two materials work well together aesthetically.

The third and final concept of the design was influenced by both economic and environmental concerns: effectively only building about half of the apartment’s square footage and leaving the other half completely empty, devoid of even windows. Essentially creating two houses for the price of one, the design scheme imagines the apartment as being akin to an empty shoebox, where 60 square meters is a perfectly insulated space (dubbed Winter House) and the remaining 50 square meters exists as an interior terrace (appropriately named Summer House).

This ingenious setup allows for the cement mortar finish on the winter house to capture heat in the summer, essentially “stealing it from the interior air [of the summer house],” as the architects explain.

The L-shaped space is then further enhanced with open configurations in both the kitchen and single, more communal bedroom —yet another way the unit encourages the concept of equitable space, regardless of the number of inhabitants.

Through their creative use of “climatic diverse distribution,” low-emissions materials, and energy-saving considerations throughout the renovated Day After House, TAKK has created an apartment that’s both aesthetically adventurous and environmentally sound.

The post Madrid’s Day After House is Eco-Conscious Design at Its Finest first appeared on Dornob.

Villa Trap consists of four linked spaces that progress from public to intimate as you move deeper into the building. The first, a large street-facing room, features a dining table and curving built-in concrete banquette seating encircled by a retractible neon yellow accordion-style screen, which mimics the actual security screen outside the glass front doors. This permeable enclosure can be fully opened to make the room feel bright and accessible, or drawn completely closed almost like armor around the seating area.

Just inside the main entrance, a small kitchen with deep blue cabinetry and a sculptural stainless steel vent hood is tucked into a circular alcove. The yellow security screen either grants or denies access to the hallway and brick stairs beyond, and from there, one can either descend into the basement studio or turn into Cain’s highly unique bedroom.

Lined with matte black tiles, the bedroom almost has a funhouse effect to it, its proportions blurred and multiplied by mirrors that stretch from halfway up the walls onto the ceiling. The first thing you see upon entering is a tub sunken into the floor, with curving pink screens separating this area from the bed for extra privacy.

Downstairs, past a graffitied wall and a red door, the spacious recording studio offers a second bathroom, another bed, a seating area, a desk, and a central recording booth. Covered in street art and slapped with a “Metro” sticker, it looks a lot like something you’d find at a transit station, and that’s exactly the point. Rooted in urban contexts, trap often makes references to the literal streets in which it originated. Iniesta’s design for Cain’s home and studio brings the textures, colors, objects and art you can find throughout Madrid and arranges them into a sort of elevated bachelor pad – just the kind of space you’d expect a rapper on the rise to inhabit.

Javier Jiminéz Iniesta graduated from the Alicante School of Architecture in 2007 and later founded Studio Animal, based in Barcelona and Madrid. He explains that “Studio Animal addresses the development of proposals related to ultra-contemporary thought and its links with the habitat in which we live; the rethinking of the spaces inhabited by the contemporary subject and the atmospheres I breathe are the center of [my] work, in pursuit of a super optimistic future for the potential inhabitants of his architectures. With a progressive specialization in the design of all types of interior spaces, Studio Animal moves from the small scale of industrial design, through the planning of the brand image, to the integral design of the spatial proposal, offering tailor-made projects for each client always under a very architectural vision.”

The post Inside the Street Art-Inspired Home Studio of European Trap Star Kaydy Cain first appeared on Dornob.

“La Madriguera (The Burrow)” is a renovation of an old wooden hut previously used as a painting studio, with the addition of an unusual new volume. Tucked between the mature trees of a heavily wooded lot, the hut looks like the cottage of a wizened hermit. Subterranean animal burrows may be dark and enclosed, but when you step inside this space, you’ll be greeted with nothing but light.

The hut, which now contains the kitchen, dining room, lounge, and studio, is lined with bright white surfaces and pierced by generously sized skylights, filling all the rooms with natural light. Custom designed furniture like bench-style sofas and desks and built-in niches and shelves line the walls, making the most of the modest square footage and allowing the space to feel larger and more open.

But it’s the home’s addition that really shines — literally. Consisting of a prefabricated steel structure featuring recycled OSB panels, cork, and recycled cotton insulation, the volume containing the bedrooms is totally mirrored on the outside, making it practically disappear into the garden around it. One large porthole window gazes out at the tranquil pond, the only interruption in a reflection of profuse greenery.

In their quest to unite the occupants of the home with nature, the architects could have gone with the ubiquitous floor-to-ceiling glass walls seen on just about every other contemporary home. Instead, they chose to connect the indoors and outdoors in glimpses, and camouflage the home much the way a rabbit hole can be hard to spot amidst the grass.

The firm adds that “the reflective element hosts the most private spaces of the house, the bedroom and toilet, with controlled openings on it, allowing effective lighting and ventilation while avoiding the direct views from the outside. Introverted and cozy, [it perfectly captures] the burrow’s essence. The oculus [and] window frames are fully made in brushed galvanized steel, which reflects and blurs the incoming light. On the roof, two skylights of this same material are opened to the sky, bathing the space with [even more] light.”

Note the word “introverted” here. “The Burrow” continues the growing architectural trend of the “introverted house,” but in a very different way from the modern homes that look like fortresses from outside. For those inward-focused homes, the intention is to block out all potential intrusions into the privacy of the home, even just from the casual glances of people passing by, disguising a hidden sanctuary for the exclusive view and use of the residents.

Those types of homes might be more closely associated with the word “lair,” another descriptive word used by the architects, in the sense of villainous activity. But there’s something sweet and simple about investigating its other meaning instead, as that of a natural home to animals. “The Burrow” feels cozy and secure tucked within its forested setting, focused on the comfort of the people inside. It’s introverted, but in a way that suggests that if you happened upon it in the woods like something out of a fairytale, the inhabitants would probably invite you in for a cup of tea.

The post Mirrored House in Madrid Hides Within a Garden Landscape first appeared on Dornob.

To illustrate this fact, Spain’s Museo del Prado has teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for a campaign called “+1.5°C Lo Cambio Todo,” or “+1.5°C Changes Everything,” referencing the news that global warming will probably reach 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels between 2030 and 2052, leading to catastrophes like drought, extreme storms, rising sea levels, and mass extinction.

The campaign presents altered versions of four key works of art from Prado’s permanent collection. “Niños en la playa” by Joaquín Sorolla, a scene of nude boys playing on the beach, turns from playful to disturbing with the addition of dead fish. “El Quitasol” by Francisco de Goya sees a happy, sunny scene of a couple with an umbrella transported to a climate refugee camp. Instead of riding his horse safely on high ground, “Felipe IV a Caballo” by Velásquez struggles to cross high water, while the lake seen in “Paso por la Laguna Estigia” by Joachim Patinir has dried up completely.

At the both WWF website and The Smithsonian, you can use an interactive slider to view the changes in each work. All four images will also be highlighted on billboards throughout Madrid’s city center. The creators of the campaign hope to contribute to growing public awareness about the severity of the problem, and prompt immediate action to mitigate the effects.

“The joint initiative is an original way to shake up the climate change debate, engage society in the fight against this global threat, and demand urgent actions and commitment to all political actors present during the coming weeks at the UN Climate Summit,” says the WWF. “We hope that the campaign will reach every corner of the planet. This action is part of a series of planned activities and initiatives that WWF will be holding during the Climate Summit to demand a greater ambition from governments to ensure that the global temperature does not exceed an increase of 1.5ºC.”

“For the Museum, this project represents an opportunity to continue placing art and its values at the service of society,” says Javier Solana, President of the Royal Board of Trustees of the Prado Museum in a statement. “The symbolic value of the masterpieces and the impressive artistic recreation that we present with WWF is an excellent way to transmit to everyone, and especially to the young generations, what is really at stake in this fight against climate change.”

Still not sure exactly what’s at stake? Read more about the domino effects of warming temperatures, especially when they melt polar ice, at The Climate Reality Project.

The post Prado Museum Gives its Collection Climate Change Makeovers first appeared on Dornob.

The idea is to allow children to safely interact with urban environments on their own terms, giving them age-appropriate spaces adjacent to important cultural spaces for adults. Set within the Intermediae exhibition space, the leisure installation features bold geometric shapes in a rainbow of vivid hues that contrast with their industrial surroundings, which themselves are part of a reclaimed slaughterhouse complex.

But it’s not just for kids, explains Kevin Haley, co-founder of Aberrant Architecture. Adults can interact with it as well, helping their children explore, learn, and play as they go. The purpose of the space is to explore how art can help propose new models for inclusion and coexistence within cities.

“To the question of how we can transform the urban space through play, Aberrant Architecture replies with structures, shapes, and colors that invite children of all ages to use this new place in an imaginative way,” add the architects. “The resulting interior landscape is composed of follies, crevices, and different elevations which, although they make up a fantastic territory that can be used by the communities that come to Intermediae each day, don’t impose rigid restrictions in terms of how people must behave. This flexibility also means that the playground can be used as a setting for a range of activities during the months when it will be open.”

“This Playground continues Intermediae Matadero’s work on childhood through commissions to interdisciplinary artists to design spaces for play. With these Playgrounds, Intermediae Matadero highlights the need to dedicate more spaces for children in contemporary cities. Through commissions to international artists to imagine new places to play, Matadero Madrid also makes a unique statement for the right to also play within cultural institutions.”

The temporary installation will be open Tuesday through Sunday each week through September 22nd, 2019, when it will be replaced by a new experimental playground designed by Spanish artist Leonor Serrano Rivas. Intermediae, a program of Matadero Madrid Center for Contemporary Creation devoted to the production of trans-disciplinary artistic projects based on experimentation and shared learning, will also organize a seminar to discuss integrating such spaces for children into more cultural institutions around the world.

Founded by David Chambers and Kevin Haley, Aberrant Architecture is known for designing creative spaces for children, including a mobile playground and partnerships with the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Landscape for Play is the latest in a string of cool modern play spaces for kids that place an emphasis on beautiful design, interactivity, and an adventurous spirit. For more examples, check out MAD’s Courtyard Kindergarten in Beijing and Nook Ballston, “a curated, gallery-like experience” made of natural birch wood with sensory-friendly details.

The post Landscape for Play: A Colorful Space for Kids at Matadero Madrid first appeared on Dornob.

Set inside a 1930s mansion in the neighborhood of Salamanca, Bustos’ installation is imagined as a retro-futuristic dressing room for a super heroine, illustrated here in a lightning bolt-shaped portrait of model Ronja Okane by Mexican illustrator Paul Fuentes. This rather David Bowie-esque element sets the mood for the entire space, which expertly blends a number of different design trends into a cohesive whole.

Iridescent colors, feminine shapes, a sense of surrealism, a little bit of Memphis-style patterning, and the look of a 1960s movie about the future come together for a result that brings minimalism into a new visual era — one that’s perhaps a little less boring and monochromatic. After all, aren’t we a little tired of seeing almost entirely featureless white spaces elevated as the pinnacle of avant-garde interior design? Wonder Galaxy reminds us of the visual elements that made us wide-eyed and awe-inspired as kids.

Bustos, who has a background in painting and fashion as well as furniture and interior design, is renowned for her ability to bring fun and irreverence into high-end spaces. The bubblegum couches featured here are a particularly evocative choice, as are the oversized “bubbles” in the bathtub, which mimic the shape of the lamps overhead.

Even as it draws from trends of the past, the installation feels fresh and exciting. Noting that adults tend to write off fantastical things as immature, Bustos visualizes a “childhood futuristic revival” where we can stop being so serious and let our imaginations take over.

She adds: “Wonder Galaxy is a journey into the future that explores the relationship between the future and the fantasy or dream world that makes us become children again…we think that a future injected with color and with a certain surrealist air can help us recover that creative energy of childhood. We started with the pink, that color that means so much to [me] and that has a magic that turns everything serious into playful, that modernizes the most classic piece or refreshes the most sober and boring atmosphere.”

“Wonder Galaxy is a risky and colorful dressing, a three-dimensional reality that reminds us of an Austin Powers movie but in which we are the protagonists. The game of arcs and asymmetric volumes gives us a feeling of infinite depth, expanding the space resulting in a perfect balance. The gradients of colors suggest a host of parallel and utopian realities in which we could live if we wanted. Put to dream…the best thing is to do without limits. Fantasy colors and soap bubbles are mixed with unusual materials such as the iridescent or the fabric of the ceiling to generate an atmosphere that transports us to another galaxy and helps us to visualize new horizons where to dream and be ourselves.”

Casa Décor’s other decorated spaces are worth checking out as well, particularly the complementary Punk Revolution lounge-bar by Miriam Alía Mateo, The Cage hotel lobby by Inmaculada Recio and Silvia Trigueros, and the Jung Dreams living room by Juan Fuentes.

The post Wonder Galaxy: A Retrofuturistic Pastel Palace by Patricia Bustos first appeared on Dornob.

In the northern outskirts of Madrid, next to one of the city’s major highways, is Desert City. It’s much more of a greenhouse complex than it is a city, though, having been built to promote educational events and eco-leisure and overflowing with cacti of all shapes and sizes. It’s sort of like a 21^st-century Spanish version of Arizona’s Arcosanti, minus the residential component and a lot smaller.

Designed by Garciagerman Arquitectos, Desert City is a biotechnical nursery built to cultivate over 400 species of cacti, succulents, and other xerophytic plants. Some of these plants come from places as far as South America, Oceania, and North America, but many of them are local to the Madrid area.

Ever since it opened in 2017, the complex has been a place where people can learn about sustainable gardening. In many places that suffer from prolonged droughts, water usage can be restricted, especially for landscaping purposes. Promoting the cultivation of xerophytic plants is a way to help those who want to have more vegetation around their homes and businesses while simultaneously observing those regulations. Desert City tries to show that although a garden full of these plants might not be considered lush to some, it can still be incredibly beautiful.

Visitors walk on stone pathways through five sections of the garden: “Arizona,” which boasts an impressive range of cacti, “Oasis,” with its small forest of palm trees, “Tabernas,” with its linear pool and minimalist landscaping, “Guajira,” comprised of species that grow in shaded areas under a catwalk, and “Tuscany,” the garden’s smallest section full of pomegranates and olives. Desert City is a showcase of possibilities, and if the scenery is not enough to impress visitors, then the research most certainly will.

According to the nursery, a Madridian household or business with a 1076-square-foot conventional garden spends an average of €1,050 a year on landscaping. That figure includes the cost of watering, irrigation, maintenance, and the upkeep of tools. With an xerophytic garden, however, those gardening expenses would be cut by two-thirds, creating a total savings of just over €7,000 in ten years. If saving water does not convince people to make the switch, Desert City hopes that saving money will.

Under the taut roof of its main building, Desert City hosts various conferences, exhibitions, activities, and workshops, all of them serviced by an on-site restaurant and shop. Everything’s enclosed by floor-to-ceiling glass, too, giving visitors uninterrupted views of the gardens outside as they mingle among the plants inside.

To call such an institution a “city“ is more a matter of marketing than reality, even though there is subtext to its very existence that is based in reality. Still, it’s really more a promotion of a lifestyle that we all need but do not want. That is what makes this desert oasis such a curious creation. We all need to use water more judiciously, but we do not want to live in a world where water is scarce. Unfortunately, in parts of the world that have historically suffered suffering from droughts, that choice has already been made for the people.

The post How Madrid’s Desert City Encourages Sustainable Water Use first appeared on Dornob.

Rica Studio, an architecture firm based in Madrid, Spain, dedicates all of its projects to the enhancement of learning, and its latest achievement makes up a key part of the new “English for Fun” center in the south of the city.

The Philosophy Behind English for Fun

When English for Fun was founded in 2008, it was largely based on the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy and teaching system. This approach revolves around the belief that children’s potentials should be strongly encouraged, placing the utmost importance on personal insight and individual decision-making.

The Power of Open Space

Kids see open space as a blank canvas for adventure. Learning is often a powerful by-product of open space that goes largely undetected in most scenarios. Playing simple games, hiding, rearranging the environment, and conjuring up imaginary people and places – all of these play activities are part of the learning experience. Rica Studios recognizes these paths to education and used them as templates when designing their latest educational enhancement.

With folding steel walls capable of opening on either side, this shelving system is filled with hundreds of different-sized cubbyholes. The lower half of its maze-like pattern is supported by the floor, while the upper units are attached to the ceiling. Kids can rearrange them to create neutral spaces large enough to fit inside or build bridges and forts that fuel creativity and storytelling. Rica avoids any predetermined “formulas” that claim to appeal to the minds of children and hopes that the kids will use their own minds’ eyes to guide the ways they use the sprawling shelving units.

The post Furniture for Fun: Rica Studio’s Latest Education Enhancement Project first appeared on Dornob.

The Pop-Up House is not only an exercise in increased functionality; it is, according to the architects, a glimpse of the future. With so many people in industrialized nations opting to live in single-person households, living spaces will inevitably continue to get smaller and smaller. Solutions like this one will allow residents to live in tiny homes while still enjoying the functionality of a traditional apartment.

The post Single Living Redefined: An Ever-Changing Apartment Interior first appeared on Dornob.

Secret compartments activated by pulleys hide both functional and fun surprises in this Madrid attic apartment, including a dining table, swing, hammock and disco ball. Elii Architects complemented the rustic wooden beams of an existing attic space with a new plywood and polycarbonate platform to offer separation for different uses, while remaining highly adaptable.

The main component is a core that houses the stairs, separate from the rest of the main floor by transparent panels. These sliding panels can be arranged in different ways to close off a guest room, separate the kitchen from the rest of the space, or open the whole floor for a party.

Hidden in the plywood ceiling are a range of functions activated by handles on the wall. Turn one of these handles and pulleys will drop down various furniture items like the kitchen table or a hammock for lounging. Also concealed within the ceiling is a set of storage shelves for guests.

Go upstairs, and you’ll find more secret compartments in the floor. One houses bath products beside the tub, while another hides a mirror. And on the other side of the upper level, a series of invisible doors can be opened to offer up a dressing table, tea room and storage spaces.

More from the architects

“The adopted strategy frees up the plant in order to achieve the greatest possible flexibility. For this, two fundamental elements are arranged: On the one hand, the central nucleus, which integrates the staircase, some shelves and the pantry. The core is located in the center of the main space under the mansard roof, which allows connecting the access floor with the space below deck and introducing the natural light that enters through the mansard roof to the living area; On the other hand, two lateral bands, where the entire functional program is concentrated, such as the kitchen, bathroom, storage and electrical appliances.”

The post Adaptable Attic Apartment Full of Secret Compartments first appeared on Dornob.

Sloped sites are notoriously difficult to deal with even in urban areas accessible by heavy building equipment. Tumbling off the side of a country road, this site in Madrid required creative alternative construction methods at every turn.

With physical and financial constraints, Spanish architect Arturo Franco “began to think: an iron structure like those of the visionary Russian Constructivists, a work by Tony Carr, a chair by Shapiro, a piece by Max Hill; something heavy and light at the same time; gravity, an issue; the scale, an instrument to work with; a large table or a small ship.”

A simple box-like structure emerged, with foundations and columns of concrete supporting a wrapped-metal abode cantilevered (with secondary stilts) above. Still, building it was no simple matter, and required on-the-spot solutions evolved by contractors and subcontractors dealing the the steep terrain.

With Casa Paz, “in the end, we were searching for a linear house …. a straight line … with deep steps as in a garden, reuniting all functions. Below it, a small therapeutic pool, 2 meters wide by 10 meters long.” Behind the scenes, the entire volume is carefully balanced so that the last portion can just over 15 feet beyond the final supports from below. It sort of ends up looking like a spaceship house hovering on the hillside.

“The whole program develops inside a square metal frame and stretched metal skin (deploye) resting on a vessel of reinforced concrete, that contains the pool water and the deposits of diesel, boiler, sewage, etc,” the architects explain.

“This iron artifact where all vital fluids are concentrated is the stomach of the animal, over 15 meters above the river. Nine HEB 300 legs unload the weight on the ground. They are the only contact of the house with the ground. The house, to maintain structural balance and some gravitational logic, cantilevers without any support 5,5 m over the river, and the same amount towards the road, with only 40 cm remaining between the house and the site over the access area. Thus, the balance of masses is achieved by taking the heavy elements to the concrete box and thus lowering the center of gravity.”

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