YEAR

2023 - 2025

CLIENT

Private

LOCATION

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

CATEGORY

Renovation

TEAM

Julia Fariña Masset

CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

Cota y Nivel S. L.

PHOTOGRAPHY & ART DIRECTION

Silvia Gil-Roldán

PUBLICATIONS

AD France, AD Italia, AD España, Diariodesign, ArchDaily, Archilovers

The project addresses the transformation of a 71 m² home, marked by its limited façade and great depth, which in its original state featured a rigid, compartmentalized layout dependent on two small interior courtyards for lighting and ventilation. The result was a dark and narrow space, lacking flow.

With a limited budget, the strategy is approached with creative austerity: clearing the space by removing unnecessary partitions, allowing light to enter, and generating a more flexible and open layout.

The intervention focuses on two key elements:

1. A central service unit that combines a bathroom, toilet, and storage, optimizing space usage.
   
2. An open kitchen-dining area, organized around a Carrara marble island that becomes the functional and aesthetic heart of the home.

The original terrazzo flooring was meticulously preserved, its imperfections woven into the narrative of the space. The traces of the old walls are emphasized with marble inserts, reinterpreting the Japanese kintsugi technique, where fractures are not hidden but celebrated, highlighting the beauty of the imperfect and the lived-in.

In the areas where the terrazzo could not be salvaged, a new 20x10 cm terracotta floor tile was introduced, also used on the vertical cladding, skirting boards, and benches. In contrast, a yellow glazed ceramic tile of the same size adds a vibrant touch to the island and the bathroom, establishing a chromatic dialogue between the classic and the contemporary.

The installations are left exposed, and the lighting comes from the walls, discarding false ceilings to maintain the maximum height and highlight the material honesty of the project. The kitchen and island are resolved as built-in elements, emphasizing simplicity and constructive rigor.

As a final gesture, velvet curtains are incorporated, capable of temporarily dividing spaces, adding a scenographic dimension that gives the whole project a theatrical atmosphere, where the everyday is transformed into a rich and dynamic spatial experience.

This intervention turns the initial limitations into opportunities to create a bright, flexible, and character-filled home, where architectural memory and contemporary life coexist in harmony.