SEQUENCE HOUSE
SEQUENCE HOUSE
by gon – Gonzalo Pardo + Ana Torres
Scenographies of living for a bachelor in Madrid.
The traditional structure of Madrid’s flats -a system of load-bearing walls parallel to the facade enclosing a set of rooms of different sizes that revolve around interior courtyards and are both isolated and connected by a corridor- is the starting point for this house for a single person located on a third floor of an apartment building in the Malasaña district.
The most singular physical and measurable characteristic of the flat is its length: from one end of the house to the other there are 21 linear metres that give the clue to the intervention to be carried out. The aim is to enhance this condition, which has now become a desire, with the floor plan of the project being the result of a complete emptying of the house that organises the domestic space in a unique atmosphere that is compatible with the spatial strategy of the walls of the initial state. In other words, the pre-existing system of contiguous rooms is re-established only that, in this second life, they are projected with a greater dimension and connected to each other, ensuring that the unity and continuity between the parts is recovered.
Consequently, new topological and programmatic relationships result in a free and fluid domestic space, liquid, where research is carried out on the concept of ‘stay’ through the construction of scenographies of the habitat linked to the basic actions of cooking, sleeping, resting, working, relating and cleaning and caring for the body. The corners of the rooms, formerly cul de sacs, are understood as areas of opportunity to experiment through visual elements that turn the space into a curve and constitute, through the use of colour and lighting, in a symbolic way, the place where an action takes place.
These spaces shape a domestic scenic production that, on a continuous wooden floor, besides understanding and enhancing the dwelling as a living place, also allows the house to be explained as a succession of contemporary narratives that articulate the transversal and longitudinal routes, public and private, that can be constantly reconfigured according to the needs of Carlos, its owner, facilitating, against the exclusive domestic functionalism, the dream of living.
Credits:
Architecture: gon (Gonzalo Pardo) + Ana Torres.
Team: Alejandro Sánchez, Carol Linares, Carlos Barranco y Clara Dios.
Construction: Serviteco Obras s.l.
Carpentry: Alma Ebanistería s.l.
Kitchen: Barronkress s.l.
Lighting: Oliva Iluminación.
Location: Madrid, España.
Year: 2020
Photography: Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzmán + Rocío Romero)
Architects: gon architects, Ana Torres
gon is a Madrid-based architecture and design office headed by Gonzalo Pardo since 2014. His practice focuses on research and development of singular architectural projects of different scales ranging from urban planning to buildings to interior construction.
The common denominator of his works is a playful, experimental, critical and optimistic view of the contemporary. In a constant dialogue based on observation and details, his interest focuses on the creative processes of architectural design and construction, as well as the role of mediation and communication of architecture as fundamental vehicles for transforming the world into a place more sustainable, worthy and free.
Gonzalo Pardo is an architect from ETSAM (School of Architecture of Madrid) since 2007, and has a PhD in Architecture since 2016. His thesis “Body and House: Towards the contemporary domestic space from the transformations of the kitchen and bathroom in the West” obtained the outstanding Cum Laude rating, and received for it the 2016-2017 Extraordinary Doctoral Thesis Award and an honorable mention in the XI call for the Arquia Foundation Thesis Contest.
Since 2007 he teaches as a visiting professor at different universities and institutions, in subjects with the common denominator of being linked to the project, as in the European Institute of Design (IED), in Madrid; the Illiois Institute of Technology (IIT), in Chicago, United States; Lund University, in Sweden, and the Master in Collective Housing (MCH), in Madrid. He has been a professor in the Master in Architectural Communication (MaCA) and in the Master in Advanced Projects (MPAA) of the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAM.
He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Architectural Projects at ETSAM, where he teaches undergraduate projects. Member of the Hypermedia research group: Communication Workshop and Architectural Configuration, he directs doctoral theses as a teacher and researcher, as well as numerous End of Master’s Projects (TFM) and Final Degree Projects (TFG).
He has been deputy curator of the Spanish pavilion at the 16th Venice Biennale, and since 2000 he has obtained 41 national and international awards, including the first prize for the remodeling of the AZCA block in Madrid in 2007; the second prizes in the international Skyscraper contests, in New York, and Velux, in Denmark, in 2007; COAM award in 2014 for the Paréntesis curator cycle, and honorable mention in the Europan 14 competition at the Barcelona location. His projects and built work have been widely disseminated in national and international, physical and virtual media.
Ana Torres
