We begin the New Year with a post that inspires us to re-imagine how a once obsolete and tired space can be completely transformed.

Designed by OOIIO Architecture, the apartment we will see in today’s post has been completely revamped from a former shop into a bright and heartwarming apartment.

Due to the important processes of urban transformation that are taking place in large areas of Madrid, many spaces are becoming classed as discarded due to the new ways of life that are taking place in them.

“The high demand for housing has led many people to consider recycling these abandoned commercial and industrial spaces and reusing them as flats.”

OOIIO Architecture

If there is one area that is changing now, it is undoubtedly the urban area of Madrid Río.

The new large park is helping these formerly run-down neighbourhoods to be rapidly transformed and reimagined into something special. Former neighbourhood shops and commercial premises are being converted everywhere into housing thanks to the Change of Use project.

“Change of Use Projects is very common today in large areas of cities like Madrid. Where there used to be a neighborhood shop, a car park, or an upholstery workshop, today rises apartments.

Families are different now and not all of them need a house with 3 or 4 bedrooms, kitchen, and garden. Nowadays there are also people who live alone or couples without children or people who are passing through a city for a specific time.”

OOIIO Architecture

In 55 m2 this former haberdashery is now a charming and joyful home that concentrates on what is necessary for contemporary urban life for a young couple.

The limited space of the premises has been cleverly re-designed to use every inch of space to its maximum potential.

Colours, textures, light, reflections and brightness flood into every corner of this studio.

 

“Society is evolving at breakneck speed. Habits change, our way of life is transformed towards hybrid models where the digital and the analog coexist creating new ways of buying, living, traveling… Cities, of course, are also changing following these socio-economic movements. This small project to transform a haberdashery into an apartment is a consequence of all this.”

OOIIO Architecture

The rectangular space that configured the old store is now embraced by an “L” of cabinets and kitchen, in such a way that it frees the entire space to make the most of it and receive in the new “living room-working area-dining room-bedroom” as much natural light as possible from outside.

This obsolete space has been given a new opportunity and is an inspiring example of what cleverly considered design can look like for 21st-century urbanites.

Photograhy: Javier de Paz