There would be no renovation had there not been a noise complaint. After a day spent running his studio, Gon Architects, Gonzalo Pardo returned to his apartment in Madrid ready for bed, where he would have remained if a steady stream of music from his neighbor’s apartment hadn’t kept him up. Pardo knocked on the door of his neighbor, Philippe Muñoz Cuellar, asking if he could turn it down. The next morning, Philippe left a bottle of champagne with an apology note on Pardo’s doorstep. The pair shared it together that night and a fruitful friendship was born.

Philippe’s career as a stockbroker has taken him across Europe, but for the past 20 years he’s called Madrid home—the longest he’s lived anywhere. Philippe wasn’t in love with his two-level apartment, and honestly, neither was Pardo. While not normally a music-playing night owl, Philippe is social, curious, and loves the arts. However none of this was reflected in his current space: a dark and cramped flat with drab materials and an odd, segmented layout. Soon enough, Philippe and Pardo were working out plans for a renovation with Pardo’s firm, Gon Architects.

The apartment was gutted and totally transformed, but really the renovation all hinges on relocating the staircase from one side of the long, narrow floor plan to the other. Granted moving the stair required significant time, money, and structural engineering work, but the shift opens the second floor to previously blocked natural light from the terrace. It also allowed for an expanded primary bedroom and created an entirely new room on the second floor. And the stair itself is an integrated furniture piece, featuring a platform with built-in cabinetry and shelving running behind the treads.

Philippe typically doesn’t favor bold colors. But this happens to be one of Gon Architects’s specialties, with the firm often using them to demarcate different programmatic spaces, coating portions of the floor, walls, and ceiling in one monochromatic stretch. It’s especially effective when space is limited and areas can’t be separated, as is the case in Philippe’s apartment. The renovation’s compromise is a more muted palette of dusty rose, dark blue, and gray: a wink at France’s flag, where Philippe was raised by his Spanish parents. Beginning at the terrace, the reddish stone is a play on tomette, a typical French terra-cotta tile; it’s the design’s dominant color and a narrative tie that helped strengthen Pardo’s case.

Building on the indoor/outdoor connection, the tomette continues from the terrace and covers the stair treads and platform before covering what Philippe refers to as the multipurpose room, where the stair meets the second level. Back on the ground floor, which is one open space, gray walls and floors designate the communal spaces like the dining area. The kitchen, new outdoor shower, and bathrooms (all areas connected by their shared water use) are marked by a deep blue hue. The kitchen culminates in a small corner with a built-in banquette and a cafe table, a cozy spot where Philippe likes to read, eat, and work.

Given that the 860-square-foot flat was compact, even now with the open-tread stair, Pardo used mirrors to expand spaces. Mirrored walls and doors in the kitchen, multipurpose room, and primary bedroom make the apartment feel at least a little larger. “When we work in smaller spaces, the use of mirrors is magic because you can make them much bigger,” says Pardo. Downstairs, one mirrored door opens a cupboard, while upstairs, another opens Philippe’s bedroom. “Philippe is like a little child, even though he works for a bank. He wanted to find secret, magic places in the house,” Pardo says.

The upstairs was a tricky combination of sloping ceilings and angled, jutting walls; and without the terrace’s sunlight and additional space, incorporating mirrors and natural light became particularly critical there to make it feel less cramped. Pardo played with the idea of a “double facade” at the primary bedroom. A window is cut into the exterior facade, with a second interior window overlooking the staircase. When the latter is open, it becomes a play on a Juliet balcony. Meanwhile new skylights bring more light into the stairwell and through to the ground floor.

At the top of the stair, in the multipurpose room, Philippe does yoga, meditates, and often sinks into a large chair with a book. While Philippe ultimately favors the kitchen nook, Pardo is passionate about how this space in particular turned out. “Architects, or people in general, are quite obsessed with giving a program to each room. But we shouldn’t be afraid to leave empty things,” says Pardo. “I mean, what is this room for? I don't know. The future will decide it.” Perhaps just like how Pardo and Philippe ended up friends in the first place.

More from Gon Architects:

A Cramped Attic Apartment in Madrid Is Revived With Mirrored Walls and a Blue Floor

An Art Gallerist’s Bachelor Pad in Madrid Revolves Around a Bold Red Storage System

Project Credits:

Architect: Gon Architects / @gonarchitects

Builder: REDO Construcción y Arquitectura

Cabinetry: DVinci Cocinas S.L.

Photography: Imagen Subliminal / @imagensubliminal

Also Appears In

A Noise Complaint and a Bottle of Champagne Sparked This Small Madrid Apartment’s Transformation