Internal renovation of an apartment in Toledo. Spain.

Located on the second floor of a block of flats in a residential area of Toledo, the apartment has 6 small rooms comprising of a living room, kitchen and four bedrooms, which are all connected via a dark and narrow corridor. Our clients, a couple with no children, require more spacious, comfortable and lighter living areas, without completely changing the original layout of the apartment.

Our proposal is, therefore, to reduce the number of bedrooms and reorganise the rooms in order to make better use of the existing sources of light and ventilation, which will also improve accessibility and energy efficiency.

The main challenge is how to combine the traditional layout with a modern and functional design and how to provide continuity between the various rooms, whilst also allowing them a suitable degree of independence. In order to achieve these objectives, all woodwork will be made to measure: floor-to-ceiling doors disguised within the furniture, wardrobes, chest-of-drawers, bookcases, shelving, kitchen units, etc.

A coloured carpet, contrasting with the pale coloured walls and ceilings, covers the entire floor of the home, reinforcing the continuity between the various spaces. Whilst the size, type and colour of the decorative floor tiles correspond to the scale and identity of each room. As such, the layout works as both a sequence of individual units as well as a singular, continuous space.

The use of traditional material for joining, such as hydraulic cement tiles, is closely linked to the owners’ family memories. This type of flooring is produced locally by hand, allowing us to qualify the pigmentation of the decorative motifs according to needs.