Home for a Poet

Fable. In the Lavapiés district of Madrid, two legends mark the name of Mesón de Paredes street. The first one has to do with the owner of an inn who, jealous of his wife, used to pierce the walls to spy on her behavior. The second has to do with an innkeeper with the same surname who seemingly invented at the end of the XIV century the sandwich, in spanish emparedado (literally between walls), to nourish travelers on their way to La Mancha.

Crucis: transire et claudere. The renovation of this dwelling of barely 60 m2 reopen an excessively compartmentalized space, configuring a small panopticon with less vigilant intentions than those of the innkeeper in the legend. If its sliding partitions are opened, the house is transformed into a cross space of deep perspectives. When closed, it maintains the privacy of its bedrooms and bathroom. Everything rotates around the kitchen, relocated to the heart of the house. This new position allows it to extend into the living-dining room and transforms a former hallway into a bar space with a wooden peninsula.

Liber et mensa. The space will be inhabited by a poet and essayist with a considerable collection of books and surrealist objects. The proposal houses more than 60 linear meters of shelves, where a selection of the owner’s books rest, some of great value, under which several places for writing are established. In total, there are 10 linear meters of tables spread throughout his domestic geography.

Tabula et lignum. Black slates for writing and drawing in the form of vertical dihedrals are also arranged on the walls. Striped pine boards are profusely used for shelves, tables and sliding doors, while the walls are made with raw plaster and slate paint.

Revelare et renovare. During the demolitions, some corners and textures were revealed. The west party wall had been filled with rubble to appear orthogonal. The project recovers its oblique condition to expand the bedrooms by housing desks and bookshelves. The concrete of the structure and the plaster of the walls and ceilings have been uncovered. In addition, the herringbone oak flooring has been lightened to give more light and the carpentry and installations have been updated to improve energy efficiency.