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A dark, compartmentalized apartment in Madrid’s Arturo Soria neighborhood was reorganized into a home that can change with the people using it. Architects Rubén Picado and María José de Blas opened interior sightlines, borrowed daylight through internal windows, concealed the kitchen behind doors, and designed furniture and lighting to perform several jobs in limited space.
The project, created for their children Mateo and Candela, shows that making a compact home feel lighter is not one paint color or one piece of furniture. It is a coordinated planning exercise: remove visual barriers where privacy allows, give rooms more than one role, convert awkward level changes into storage, and place light where it supports daily activities.
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The 646-square-foot home was small, dark, and divided into too many separate compartments. The architects described the original condition as a “cave,” according to the Architectural Digest feature published May 20, 2024. A common terrace directly above had also allowed dampness and mold to develop in the ceiling, adding a building-maintenance problem to the design brief.
Picado and de Blas renovated the apartment for Mateo and Candela, who are also architects. Their objective was not simply to make one room look larger. They needed the available floor area to support living, working, entertaining, cooking, and storage without leaving unusable gaps between functions. The resulting plan treats visibility, furniture, doors, levels, and lighting as parts of one system.
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Five moves that changed how the home works
1. Interior windows carry daylight and views through the plan
Instead of allowing solid partitions to stop light at each doorway, the renovation introduces windows in interior walls. These openings create transparency between rooms and maintain longer sightlines across the apartment. The effect is spatial as well as visual: a person standing in one area can understand more of the home without walking through every room.
The bathroom sits in the middle of the plan, where a conventional enclosed room would normally be deprived of an exterior window. An interior opening allows exterior light and views to reach it. That does not mean the project eliminated privacy; it means privacy had to be considered alongside the size, position, and treatment of each opening. In another apartment, translucent glazing, a high sill, a curtain, or a carefully angled opening could provide a similar balance without creating a direct view into a bathing area.
No measured lux increase or before-and-after brightness test is reported for this renovation. What is documented is the strategy: opening selected interior walls so light and visual connections can pass farther into the plan.
2. Custom modular furniture lets one room change jobs
The living room is furnished with custom modular pieces rather than a fixed seating arrangement. The components can face one another for conversation or form an L-shaped configuration. That small change in orientation gives the room different social and practical identities.
In the apartment’s day-to-day life, the same area can serve as a meeting space, Candela’s workshop, or a lounge. The important lesson is not a particular sofa model; the feature identifies these pieces as custom designed. Their value comes from fitting the room and from being rearrangeable, not from belonging to an identified retail collection.
When planning a similar setup, measure every position the furniture must occupy. Check circulation when the pieces are separated, the clearance needed to open doors or drawers, and whether a work surface can be reached without crossing the main walking path. A modular arrangement only saves space when its alternate configurations remain usable.
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3. Doors make the kitchen disappear when cooking stops
The kitchen can be closed behind doors and visually folded into the surrounding living area. During cooking, it operates as a dedicated work zone; afterward, the doors reduce the visual evidence of appliances, counters, and equipment in the shared room.
This is a zoning decision rather than a claim that every small kitchen should be hidden. Hinged, sliding, or folding doors each require a different amount of wall, track, and swing clearance. The right choice depends on where the kitchen sits, how often it is used, and whether the doors can open fully without blocking circulation. In this apartment, concealment supports the larger goal of keeping the common space visually continuous when the kitchen is idle.
4. Level changes become storage and identity
The rooms do not all sit at one uniform height. Floor and ceiling levels vary by up to 16 inches in this project. Rather than treating every change as a defect to erase, the designers used attic spaces and the small step between shared and private areas for practical storage.
A level transition can mark the boundary between public and private zones without adding another full-height wall. It can also create a location for drawers, cupboards, or concealed compartments that would otherwise be lost. The safety details matter: edges need clear visibility, circulation should not force people to step unexpectedly, and doors and drawers must remain operable at the altered height.
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5. Lighting is distributed instead of concentrated in one fixture
Candela de Blas designed the project’s light fixtures. The feature describes points of light integrated into cabinet doors, positioned along the floor, and built into the bathroom mirror. These locations create several levels of illumination rather than asking one ceiling fitting to light every task and surface.
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The apartment also includes an Eclipse fireplace with a circular cover that controls how much firelight is visible. De Blas explains, “it’s a sculpture that lets the light from a fire shine through a circle like the sun. It can then be dimmed by a round cover, which acts like the moon during an eclipse,” as reported in the feature. The object is both a light source and a visual focal point.
Layered lighting is especially useful when a room changes roles. Low-level illumination can support an evening lounge setting, cabinet or task lighting can support work, and mirror lighting can serve grooming without flooding the entire room. The exact fixtures and electrical layout are specific to this home, but the planning principle transfers: decide what each area needs to illuminate before choosing decorative fittings.
How the interventions reinforce one another
Each move addresses a different limitation, but their value increases when they are planned together. Interior windows extend sightlines; movable furniture keeps the resulting open areas adaptable; kitchen doors allow visual calm when cooking is over; storage in leftover spaces protects the floor from freestanding cabinets; and layered lighting keeps the open plan usable after daylight fades.
The result is not an apartment with no boundaries. Instead, boundaries are selective. A door can conceal the kitchen, a step can distinguish shared from private space, and an interior window can connect rooms without removing every separation. This selective approach preserves the functions of individual zones while reducing the feeling that the home is a chain of small, sealed boxes.
A practical planning sequence for a similarly dark small apartment
1. Record the existing problems before choosing finishes
Map where daylight enters, where sightlines stop, and which walls contain plumbing, structure, or services. Record any damp patches, peeling coatings, or mold. In the Madrid apartment, moisture was linked to the common terrace above, so the water source was part of the renovation problem rather than a cosmetic issue.
2. Decide which walls should become transparent
Choose openings that connect useful views or daylight routes. Test sightlines from the main entrance, living area, kitchen, and bathroom. For each proposed window, decide how privacy will be maintained and how the opening will be cleaned, shaded, and ventilated. A small, well-placed opening can be more useful than removing an entire partition.
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3. Draw every furniture configuration at full scale
For a modular living room, mark the footprint of each arrangement on the floor. Include walking paths, cabinet doors, radiators, outlets, and work positions. Keep only configurations that leave a clear route and support a real activity. Custom construction should respond to these measured needs instead of merely filling an empty wall.
4. Design kitchen concealment around actual use
List which appliances and counters must remain accessible while cooking and which can disappear afterward. Check door stacking or swing, ventilation requirements, lighting controls, and cleaning access. The goal is a kitchen that can close without creating a new obstruction.
5. Audit awkward voids for storage
Inspect attic pockets, platform edges, wall thicknesses, and the space beside level changes. Decide what each compartment will hold before building it: rarely used items can tolerate less convenient access, while daily tools need reachable locations. Keep storage doors aligned with the room’s circulation so they do not turn a useful niche into a hazard.
6. Build a lighting plan in layers
Separate general, task, accent, and low-level lighting on the plan. Mark the exact surface each fitting should illuminate and the control that will operate it. Mirror lighting, cabinet lighting, and floor-level points can each serve a different activity; placing them on one switch would remove much of that flexibility.
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7. Resolve moisture before painting or installing finish materials
If a ceiling has mold or recurring dampness, identify and repair the leak with the responsible building owner or community before applying new coatings. Cleaning and repainting an active moisture problem can hide damage temporarily while the underlying source continues. Once the substrate is dry and sound, finishes can be selected to support the lighting and sightline strategy.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What these choices mean for painting and finishing
The renovation does not document a particular paint brand, color schedule, or measured reflectance, so no exact palette can be attributed to the apartment. A painter working on a comparable plan should instead think about continuity and interruption. Interior windows create new edges that need crisp preparation on both sides; a kitchen that closes behind doors makes the inside and outside faces of those doors part of the visual composition; and a level change can be emphasized or visually quietened through color placement.
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Before coating, inspect every new opening for patched plaster, uneven reveals, and movement at joints. The more a wall contributes to a long sightline, the more visible a poor transition becomes. Coordinate the finish schedule with electrical and cabinet installation so integrated floor, mirror, or door lighting is not damaged or painted over.
Lighting temperature and sheen can change how a surface reads at night, particularly near mirrors, cabinet points, and low-level fittings. Sample the proposed finish beside the actual light sources at several times of day. This is a practical test for the new lighting plan, not evidence about the Madrid apartment’s own finishes.
Comparing the design moves before committing
| Move | What to evaluate | Main trade-off or complexity | What is documented here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interior windows | Daylight route, longer views, privacy control | Structural work, glazing details, cleaning and shading | Used to connect rooms and bring exterior light to the central bathroom |
| Custom modular seating | Number of useful configurations and circulation in each | Higher design and fabrication effort than fixed furniture | Seating can face one another or form an L; pieces are custom |
| Kitchen doors | How often the kitchen is concealed and whether access remains easy | Door swing, tracks, ventilation, and hardware clearances | Allows the kitchen to disappear into the living area when idle |
| Storage in level changes | Capacity, access frequency, and edge safety | Irregular construction and possible headroom or trip concerns | Attic spaces and a step between zones provide storage; levels vary by up to 16 inches |
| Distributed lighting | Task coverage, scene control, and nighttime comfort | More wiring, controls, and coordination with built-ins | Fixtures by Candela de Blas include cabinet, floor, and bathroom-mirror points plus the Eclipse fireplace |
These are planning criteria, not performance measurements. The feature gives no construction costs, product prices, energy data, or quantified brightness comparison for any option.
What the project can—and cannot—prove
This is one documented renovation, not a controlled comparison of apartment layouts. Its 646-square-foot area and reported 16-inch height variation describe this home only. The source does not establish a general percentage increase in daylight, a universal amount of storage gained, or a guaranteed return on custom work.
It does establish a clear design logic: the family used selective transparency, movable elements, concealed functions, reclaimed residual space, and deliberately placed light to make a constrained plan more versatile. Those ideas can inform another renovation, but the dimensions, structure, privacy needs, budget, and building rules will determine which details are appropriate.
The transferable lesson
A small apartment feels more capable when its boundaries are purposeful rather than automatic. Open the walls that block useful light, keep privacy where it matters, let furniture support more than one activity, turn leftover volume into storage, and coordinate every finish with the lighting plan. The Madrid renovation succeeds as a case study because these decisions were made together, allowing a previously dark and divided home to support several ways of living without adding floor area.
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