Refurbishment of the main rooms of a 19th century privateer’s house, balancing history and contemporaneity, adding a new time of construction.

Text provided by the architects.

La entrada La Casa del Pirata se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

“When the phrase ‘the trees prevent us from seeing the forest’ is repeated, its exact meaning may not be understood. Perhaps the mockery behind the phrase backfires on the person who utters it. The trees prevent us from seeing the forest, and thanks to that, the forest exists. The mission of the visible trees is to keep the rest latent, and only when we realize that the visible landscape hides other invisible landscapes do we feel ourselves to be inside a forest.”

— Meditations on Don Quixote. Depth and Surface — José Ortega y Gasset (1914)

There is a profound similarity between architecture and music. Not in their final manifestation, but in the initial process of composition. Although music is the most abstract art form and architecture is the opposite, the way in which both disciplines are composed shares many points in common.

Bill Evans, jazz pianist par excellence and a fundamental reference for the authors, expressed it this way in an interview:
“Jazz is a concrete process that is not intellectual. You use your intellect to break down the materials, learn to understand them, and learn to work with them. But in reality, it takes years and years of practice to develop the skill necessary to be able to forget all that, relax, and just play.”

La entrada A forest in the house se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The project involves the transformation of an apartment occupying the rural part of an 18th-century farmhouse.
Fribourg farmhouses of that era housed both living quarters and farm functions under one roof. The rural section consisted of two stables flanking a central passageway — the fourragère — a through-space used for feeding livestock, which also benefited from additional height allowing hay to be stored above the stables.

The apartment, fitted out in 2011 by previous owners, resulted from a renovation that significantly altered the rural volume’s substance and nature. The original ceiling joists were replaced with a concrete slab, the wooden structure was substituted with masonry walls, and the roof framework removed in favour of glulam beams.

La entrada La Cretâ Farmhouse se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

One person, one animal and „peace of the soul“.
The original scheme of the apartment did not fit the brief for this project. We wanted to arrange the interior in a way that achieves a feeling of lightness and ethereality. Something that is big and small at the same time. On one side there is a bit much, on the other a little. To define the space, but also not to.
How should one move in it, what to place where and how to use it?
The apartment articulates that it does not matter. The project aims at a feeling and an individual.
Some parts of the apartment have its own place, but that is all. We have been discussing the topic of space and its possibilities for a long time now. We are therefore glad that also this scheme defines very little – just what is not there. The apartment is opened for any changes in its conscious use thanks to its depth of intimacy.

Text provided by the architects.

La entrada Loft se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The Love Shack is a built prototype for material reuse, design for disassembly (DfD), and small-scale functionality. Its conceptual framework is governed by resource efficiency and experimentation. The core philosophy centers on minimizing waste while maximizing lifespan in an effort to reframe predetermined conceptions of how salvaged materials should look and perform.

Functionally, the studio space has the ability to transform from a bedroom to a living room to an office space, providing a flexible extension to the existing family home. The facade facing the existing house includes operable solid doors that allow for privacy when closed and, when open, allow the pavilion to feel like an extension of the backyard. Highlight windows provide natural ventilation year-round and even indirect light throughout the day.

Due to the rigid modular grid imposed on the triangular corner site, we were left with an irregularly shaped space where we chose to locate the bathroom. The bathroom features a trapezoidal-shaped column centred in the room to house all the services and create programmatic delineation within a confined space. The design approach centered on waste minimization includes material re-use, DfD; modularity, minimising material types, and dry fixing details. The 1.2m grid and 2.1m datum were derived from standard sheet sizes defined in the base logic of the plan and elevations.

La entrada Love Shack Multi-Functional Studio se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Perched in the foothills of California’s Santa Cruz mountains, WOJR’s House of Horns transforms architectural ruins into something altogether more compelling. This 800-square-metre residence in Los Altos Hills breathes new life into abandoned foundations, creating a home that functions as both shelter and sculptural instrument. The project’s distinctive name stems from its conceptual foundation—the architects envisioned the house as an assemblage of instruments, each element tuned to capture the rhythms of daily and seasonal change. These metaphorical “horns” manifest as carefully oriented skylights and clerestories that orchestrate the play of light throughout the interior spaces.

WOJR’s approach begins with a bold gesture of restoration, re-burying the lower level into the hillside to restore the original topography. This intervention creates two distinct architectural experiences: above ground, a singular open space for gathering emerges, crowned by inverted elliptical vaults that reach toward the space’s perimeter. Below, a series of intimate chambers connect selectively to the landscape through sunken courtyards. The sculptural elements truly elevate this project beyond conventional residential architecture. At the heart of the upper level sits a fireplace carved from blocks of Vermont Danby marble—described by the architects as “one of the projects within a project.” This monolithic centrepiece anchors the open plan while serving as a functional focal point for family life. Equally striking is the cave-like bathing space below, supported by an ovoid column carved from stone. These marble elements blur the boundaries between architecture and sculpture, creating moments of quiet drama throughout the home.

La entrada House of Horns se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Nestled within a meadow on the outskirts of a small village in the Sierra de Gredos, Prado Toro is born from the desire to disconnect, a deep immersion in nature, and a compulsive reading of Walden . This compact retreat is conceived as a sanctuary for summer and weekend escapes, offering an elemental yet profound living experience.

The project draws inspiration from the region’s traditional agricultural structures—small-scale, low-height buildings used for storing tools and livestock with minimal material investment. Prado Toro reimagines this archetype, expanding upon the notion of a rural outbuilding to accommodate modern needs.

However, rather than extending the footprint, the intervention unfolds vertically. A shell-like structure rises above the basic form, creating an open-plan, lofted interior that houses a living space, a compact kitchen, and a sleeping area. This new envelope is clad in ceramic tiles, a fundamental material in the traditional architecture of the Castilian highlands, ensuring protection against the region’s heavy rains and westerly winds. Inside, pinewood surfaces reinforce the typological purity of the cabin.

La entrada Prado Toro se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

A small house for a couple and their two cats. The site was a small lot in a dense residential neighborhood, past a bustling urban shopping street. The clients’ request was simple: “As long as there was an outer shell for living and space for the cats to run around, the rest could come together over time.”

We began by creating an enclosed space over the full extent of the site. In the space measuring less than 26 square meters, we placed the necessary objects of living, such as a toilet, bath, and kitchen. With the addition of components that constitute the “outer shell” for living like two stairs, a cat walkway, handrails, and a bench, the space quickly filled up. From inside the house, it is impossible to have every object in view at once. These are massive in relation to the house itself; their scale is the same or sometimes even larger than the scale of the space. One sees only the blur of light and moist coolness on the rough surface of a concrete wall. It is unclear how far the wall continues or where it ends, appearing large and heavy. The house should belong to the inhabitant but seems to evade ownership, belonging to nobody, existing in place as if it were a mountain or the city itself.

La entrada Nakano House se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Mexican Architecture studio, Oficina de Práctica Arquitectónica has completed Plumbago, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant and cultural venue located in the vibrant Cuauhtémoc neighborhood of Mexico City.

Set in a compact infill plot within one of the capital’s most vibrant culinary districts, Plumbago’s minimalist design uses a carefully curated selection of raw materials and precise construction techniques to bring texture and invite natural light into a simple and welcoming open space.

The small, former derelict site sits in between two high rise buildings just feet away from busy Reforma Avenue, the city’s financial district. The new venue provides a human scale, contrasting with the adjacent corporate feel of the nearby buildings and is composed of two main spaces enclosed by parallel pitched-roof volumes that vary in size and materiality. The larger, transparent structure made from corrugated polycarbonate sheet contains the main dining area and bar, which can accommodate up to 70 guests, while the smaller enclosed shed houses the private kitchen and service areas is made from Pintro sheet.

Plumbago provides an understated yet sophisticated backdrop for the restaurant’s Mediterranean-inspired menu, which prioritises the use of fresh, locally sourced produce.

La entrada Plumbago se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The Equilibri restaurant project creates atmospheres; it aims to speak of the old and the new, of memory and what already exists, of strength and fragility. Each layer of this project is counterbalanced by its opposite. The mirror is the point of union between the two. It is equilibrium.

The space retains the memory of what once was. The strategic placement of a mirror reflects the trusses, allowing a connection to that past which is no longer there, and restores the true scale of the space, unifying what was once mutilated.

The entrance to the space is narrow and dark. Gradually, the walls shed their materials until they are reduced to skin and bones upon reaching the main hall. The program places the open kitchen at the back of the premises. Folding enables illumination: paper is folded for the lamps, metal is bent to filter the light, and wood is folded over the kitchen.

A baseboard made of thermoclay accompanies the entire path, acting as a foundation where the tables—balanced and ready to host the ritual of eating—can be placed.

Text provided by the architects.

La entrada Equilibri Restaurant se publicó primero en Global Spaces.