This Bilbao Apartment Takes the Open Floor Plan to the Extreme
When Iñigo Berasategui and Ane Arce, two of the partners from the Bilbao-based architecture firm AZAB, purchased a condo for their family to call home, they were well aware that the flat’s semicircular floor plan would present them with a very particular design challenge as they embarked upon a gut renovation.
Before: The original configuration of the home was "quite conventional with a succession of rooms linked by a corridor," says Berasategui. This is what the kitchen looked like prior to the renovation.
Set in an elegant high-rise on the edge of the city, the building was designed by Spanish architect Hilario Imaz and can be defined as "typical bourgeois housing of the 1960s," according to Berasategui. He adds that the unit’s original configuration was, "quite conventional, with a succession of rooms linked by a corridor." Despite its former dated and lackluster appearance, the couple knew that the apartment also possessed definite untapped potential—its light-filled corner location and a graceful semicircular floor plan made the space particularly unique, but also made renovating it a unique challenge.
AZAB tore down the walls of the 969-square-foot flat using curtains to define and separate the living spaces. The architects chose to embrace the unit’s gentle curve and incorporate it into their design.
Armed with a fixed budget of 45,000 euros—including furniture and kitchen appliances—the couple and their firm embarked on a gut renovation. They stripped the unit down to its basic elements and transformed it into a fresh and flexible space that would "center the force of the interior space" and embrace the building’s delicate curves.
One of the apartment’s two bathrooms is tucked behind a curtain adjacent to the kitchen.
Deciding that a totally open floor plan was the best solution, all of the interior walls were removed to create one expansive open space. "The inspiration came through an exploration of new ways to enjoy the domestic space," shares Berasategui. Another major source of inspiration for the design also came from the ideas of Dada pioneer Marcel Duchamp and his Readymades—a concept that also gives the project its name, the Ready-Made Home.
Also somewhat Duchampian in nature is the employment of DIY techniques and the use of elements that were found in the unit and recycled from its former life. The Nero Marquina marble flooring, which now lines the edge of the kitchen and serves as a square backsplash in the principal bathroom, had its first life as the original kitchen flooring. Another relic of the prerenovation kitchen is the former white marble countertop which has been upcycled into a table that now sits behind the sofa.
The Nero Marquina marble floor in the kitchen and bathroom is actually repurposed material from the unit’s original kitchen flooring.
Color was a fundamental element of the project and the pink range hood certainly makes a bold statement. The birch plywood boards that are used for the kitchen cabinetry match the flooring and reflect the firm’s embrace of DIY techniques.
The calculated use of color throughout the home was another important element of the redesign. There are the long, light-blue curtains, a bold pale-pink range hood, and the bright-yellow steel frame that supports the shelving system. "Color is fundamental to the project and the fresh color palette serves to qualify the objects and to sweeten them," explains Berasategui. "The background is softened with a creamy tone, and objects range from pink to blue in a gradient of color that places a focus on the elements and the furniture over the architecture."
Color also plays a role at the home’s front entrance’s where patches of olive green paint remain giving the space an unfinished look. Berasategui states that it was an intentional decision made during the construction phase, one that reinforces the questions of what it means to finish a home—a home that will certainly continue to evolve.
Contributing to the DIY look are the birch plywood boards that are used as flooring in the living room and the expansive shelving system which is suspended from a bright-yellow steel reinforcing frame. "We are book lovers, so the bookshelves are a central part of our home experience," says Berasategui.
The white marble table that sits behind the sofa had a past life as the former kitchen countertop. The ceiling moldings are original.
Berasategui also cites inspiration from "the atmosphere of the Factory and the first houses of Frank Gehry,"—but above all, he adds, the spirit of the home is lighthearted, "a playful liberation where humor leads."
A blank wall leaves the family room for a home entertainment system.
The front entrance’s unfinished look was an intentional decision made during construction and explores the concept of "finishing" a home that will certainly continue to evolve.
A small portion of the hallway remains and leads to the two bedrooms.
The bookcase is suspended from a bright-yellow structural frame that runs the length of the apartment and down the hallway.
The principal bedroom has an en suite bath set behind a curtain.
The bathroom is tiled a bold blue, with repurposed Nero Marquina marble.
Floor plan of Ready-Made Home by AZAB
Related Reading:
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A Former Warehouse in Madrid Becomes a Colorful and Adaptable Apartment
Project Credits:
Architect of Record: AZAB (Iñigo Berasategui, Ane Arce, Cristina Acha, Miguel Zabella)
Builder/General Contractor: ALUR S.L
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