House Renovation JM55

House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano

HOUSE RENOVATION JM55

BURR Studio

ARCHITECTS
BURR Studio

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN TEAM
Elena Fuertes, Ramón Martínez, Álvaro Molins, Jorge Sobejano

COLLABORATOR
Rubén Gómez

PHOTOGRAPHS
Maru Serrano

AREA
40 m²

YEAR
2020

LOCATION
Madrid, Spain

CATEGORY
Renovation, Apartment Interiors

JM55 is the transformation of a humble apartment built in the seventies in Madrid into an experimental dwelling.

House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano

The housing block built in the ’70s on Joan Maragall Street in Madrid, replicated the distribution paradigm of the time, managing to fit two bedrooms, a full bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen in 40m2.

The independent rooms strictly complied with the necessary functional minimums, reducing each one’s potential size.

The proposed transformation is radically opposed to this principle, dismantling the divisions between spaces and dissolving the limits of the uses associated with each of them.

House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano

A central core integrates all the facilities of the house, being the toilet the only element that can be isolated.

The rest of the materials, uses and rooms merge and contaminate each other, so that the tenants sleep in the bathroom as well as shower in the living room.

A piece of white tiling symbolically marks the wet uses that are present throughout the house, completely coating the central piece and the floors near it.

House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano

As an opposite strategy, rails included in the ceilings draw the blueprint of a totally different space.

Temporary spaces closed by textile divisions appear to allow complementary activities or isolate those which require a higher degree of privacy.

In this way a study capsule can be set up, a bedroom can be isolated or the kitchen can be hidden.

House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano

The curtains that delimit these spaces materially reflect the activities they are intended to shelter so that the bedroom is wrapped in a curtain made of quilts, while the study can be enclosed by a curtain made of folded felt strips.

House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano


House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano
House Renovation JM55
© Maru Serrano


House Renovation JM55
Floor Plan
House Renovation JM55
Floor Plan