ENTRY DETAILS

  • Company Name OOIIO Architecture
  • Entry Name Warehouse Apartments
  • Category
    • Residential
      Gold Award (2025)
    • Best Use of Colors
      Best of Best (2025)
  • Clients
  • Lead Designer Joaquín Millán Villamuelas
  • Design Team Federica Aridon Mamolar, Raf Diericj, Claudia Sánchez Villares, Ximena Zenteno Ladrón de Guevara, Daniele Marino.
  • Completion Date September 16, 2024
  • Size 295
  • Location Avenida del Manzanares, 204, Usera, 28026 Madrid
  • Photo Credit Javier de Paz
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SHORT DESCRIPTION

Suddenly, one good day, the centre was no longer the only place where people wanted to live in big cities. The factories and workshops in the working-class neighborhood began to move to other places near other noisy and grey highways, because that is where they work best, leaving behind large empty spaces like our warehouse. Over time, more and more people wanted to live in those former grey working-class neighborhood, because it was now a pleasant and attractive place for families, but there was no more space for new houses. Why not recycle those large old disused spaces as homes? After all, thanks to technology, many inhabitants now work remotely and don´t have to go to the factories. But they can continue living and working in the same neighborhood. Old warehouses offer attractive spatial possibilities for them if they are used well. One day someone decided to transform our old empty warehouse into homes, and commissioned the colours to do this job. The grey left, and the yellows, blues, greens, oranges entered…. Colour conquered everything, it filled every corner of our old warehouse with joy, shades and surprises to house those young families who came to live with great enthusiasm in this renovated neighbourhood. The new houses equipped with everything necessary for contemporary life were built with wood, reddish brick and glazed ceramic, to make them cosy. The former industrial pipes and pre-existing structural elements of the old warehouse were almost torn off by the city's inhabitants' desire for renewal, but Yellow, the colour, decided to hug and invite them to stay there and be part of the new homes. After all, a renovated space is always more interesting when it keeps some clues about what it did in its previous life.