For Eduardo Mediero, impermanence is not a problem. That’s a strange characteristic for an architect—his job is to shape the world around him and leave a mark on its surface. But when Eduardo founded his studio, Hanghar, in 2021, he decided he would close his practice after exactly 10 years. Some might find this deadline for self-destruction suffocating; for Eduardo, it felt like freedom.

“I see it as complete liberation. I don’t have the pressure of a forty-year-long career on my shoulders,” he says. More than three years into the project, he still feels excited by the premise: “I can move so much faster. I make decisions so much faster because I only have seven years left.”

“Part of what makes this place special is its relationship with the outside, with the cityscape and sky.”
—Eduardo Mediero, architect and resident

Eduardo’s tendency to act quickly shows up in all aspects of his life, including his home. He splits his time between Madrid, where his practice is based, and Oviedo, a town in northern Spain where his partner, Pelayo del Pozo, owns a group of pharmacies. In 2023, they knew they wanted to buy a place in the capital, and though they weren’t sure what they wanted, when Eduardo toured a 1970s apartment north of Madrid’s center, he saw their future unfold.

“The apartment was very small and claustrophobic, but an architect could see the potential,” Eduardo says. “It went on sale on a Tuesday, I saw it on Wednesday, and I signed on Friday.”

Though the apartment was tiny, he found inspiration in Italian Renaissance studiolos, which were small studies where people could sit and think. “These were boxes inside a box, a room inside a room,” Eduardo says.

Eduardo borrowed this concept by building massive storage cabinets around a corner of the apartment to wall off a bedroom. He left the cabinetry’s olive-green waterproof fiberboard panels exposed, celebrating the raw material instead of covering it up. The rest of the open floor plan fans out around it. On one side is the small kitchen; on the other, the living room opens up toward the windows. A door in the corner leads to the bathroom.

“For me, the size of the apartment is not part of the conversation. It’s about designing other ways of living.”
—Eduardo Mediero

Sometimes, a small apartment can feel frantic and tightly wound—a place for everything and not a thing out of place. But in the couple’s 500-square-foot studiolo, there’s room to breathe. When the morning light streams through the industrial blinds, it shimmers off the green cabinets and draws attention to unexpected details like the rubber flooring and the reflective metal ceiling, which brighten and seem to expand the space.

The lived-in harmony belies the speed at which Eduardo worked: He toured the apartment in April 2023, started construction in May, and moved in by the end of the year. Others might have found this tight timeline confining. To Eduardo, it offered a familiar freedom.

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Ha nghar / @hanghar.llc

Builder: MRS Constructores

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An Italian Renaissance Concept Inspires a Contemporary Madrid Apartment Renovation