Property trusts come in many different shapes and sizes. It can be seen in the way a diagonal cuts across an unusual floor plan, or the way a mirror breaks up a wall rather than simply reflecting one. Madrid studio Ba-rro has it in spades, and their residential project BV9 is a compelling example of what innovation can look like when driven by ideas rather than convention.
At 160 square meters, BV9 has four bedrooms, three bathrooms that have been completely redesigned from the inside out. Ba-rro’s approach goes beyond cosmetic renovation – this is a project about rethinking how a home is lived. A bold diagonal movement cuts through the original structure, disrupting the inherited orthogonality and redirecting the way people move through the space. What were once strict boundaries are turning into changes. Doors become thresholds. The rooms change their character depending on the time of day.
Without access to the original floor plan, it’s difficult to assess how much the new building improves on what came before – but given the desire to intervene, one can only hope that the efficiency of the space is raised to match.
Interior Designer Turns Neglected 1934 Madrid Villa Into Design Manifesto.
When the founder of Plutarco began to renovate his 1934 Madrid villa, the result was always going to be personal.
Material thinking is considered. Wood – used here not in its rustic, natural form, but as a refined element of geometric abstraction – is almost industrial in its precision, bearing an unexpected relationship with stainless steel. A wonderful conceptual pivot: taking an object loaded with warmth and organic associations and stripping it back to its clean and textured surface. The studio also uses mirrors with a real sense of space – used skillfully, they cause all surfaces to appear to collapse, increasing the visual volume of the apartment without a single structural intervention.
Color, on the other hand, is handled with admirable restraint. Used sparingly and deliberately, it marks the structure rather than dominates it – separating spaces, marking the edges where architecture alone leaves things unclear. The resulting effect is calm rather than intense, it seems lively without going overboard. It’s a really hard balance to achieve, and even harder to make it look effortless.
“Repair is not just repair,”Ba-rro write a project.“Finding, eliminating guarantees, and proposing new ways of living.”That ethos reads through every decision here – a home that honors the past while refusing to be oppressed by it.
There is a warmth to this project, a human quality, as the geometry remains structured and the palette restrained. It sits somewhere between minimalism and sensibility – a place that feels more like it was built for life than photography. And that, in the end, is the highest compliment you can pay.
TET House by Extrarradio Estudio Transforms Spatial Limitations into Design Opportunity.
Extrarradio Estudio took a tired 1940’s Madrid terrace and reduced it to the skeleton of a building. From this blank canvas came TET House.
[Images courtesy of Ba-rro. Photography by Simone Marcolin.]