Located in Málaga, Spain, this relatively small yet comfortable residence was designed by OAM and was completed in 2014. It was created on a budget of about $137,000 and features just 882 square feet of living space. The clients are a young couple with children, with the wife being a violinist. Drawing inspiration from the unique art of using a violin to produce a continuous 60-second continuous sound, the architects created a home that exhibits utmost continuity.
The designers renovated and expanded an older dwelling row house of 527 square feet and managed to create a larger, more comfortable two-level abode. The backyard flaunts a kitchen that is connected to a garden, a living room and a green outdoor hallway that leads the way to the children’s room. Inside, minimalism and elegance abound thanks to crisp white walls, modern furnishings and a few tasteful decor elements.
From the architect:
With just one bow movement, a violin virtuoso is able to produce a sixty seconds continuous sound. In this lapse of time, the musical note flows constantly without sound alterations. The notes will be tied together by means of the legato which indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected with no interruptions at all.
In terms of architecture, this continuity condition, with which the space articulates itself without breaks or interruptions, was a client straightforward goal, a young couple, being she a violinist, with two children.
The small scale work consisted in the integral reform of a dwelling row house of 49 m2 with a plot of its property. Voiding its interior completely allowed increasing the useful inner volume by adding the original wasted spaces over the ceiling and under the flooring. With it, the functional program could be developed in two levels with an area of 85 inner sqm. and 80 outer sqm. , placing the main level of the house at the lower backyard level of the plot. The entry remains at the same original level, which after the house integral reform becomes its intermediate level, where only the music room is located. This point connects, with a difference in height of 1.5, with both the upper and lower levels.
The house space is continuous and the rooms are defined with no need of confinement, keeping an open relationship among them, evolving naturally with the house owners. The kitchen is placed in the backyard as a small pavilion allowing a ring circulation, and connecting the living room, the garden, a green exterior hallway and the children room. The Mediterranean weather of Malaga city allows extending the inner house space to those exterior ones which integrate as new rooms.
The building process has tried to diminish the visual noise, avoiding the use of many materials or excessive constructive solutions. Architecture shall offer an evolving silence. Life will play the music.
Architect In Charge: Iñaki Pérez de la Fuente, Cristina García Baeza
Area: 82.0 sqm
Year: 2014
Photographs: Jesús Granada
Facilities : Alejandra Trigueros de la Cruz.
Technical Architect: Cristian Fernández Garzón.
Structures: JC ingeniería.
Metal Work: Kawneer España
Kitchen: Nolte
Bathrooms: Cubik
Mechanisms: GIRA
Constructor: HECASERCO
Budget: 120.000 euros
