Potential in the Heart of Madrid
“I am deeply interested in everyday objects and furniture, how their shapes, functions, and materials make us feel,” architect and furniture designer Guillermo Trapiello detailed as he sat in the living room of the 60sqm/645sqft home he shares with his wife, Elvira. For the founder of Guillermo Trapiello Studio, home is a place that should inspire or help you think – not unlike a workshop. So when he and his wife came across an abandoned apartment in central Madrid, they only saw potential. Well, potential and the flock of pigeons that had taken up residence there. Teamed up with his good friend Ana Cubas, Trapiello set about converting the irregularly shaped, cramped unit on the top storey of a 1935 social housing building into a seemingly spacious home primed for experimentation.
60 Square Metres of Experimentation
The awkward layout determined by many small rooms had to go. In its place came something more cohesive, connected, and generally less hampered by walls. In similar fashion, the outdated “busy” decor and rich colour scheme gave way to a more minimalist aesthetic. And so Casa Albero was born. The home’s white walls are met with the warm yellows accents of light-coloured wood, the deep greens of large plants, and the vibrant hues of little trinkets, collectibles, or book spines. “I think my favourite part of this house is how it feels – the atmosphere: the light, the space,” recounted Trapiello, explaining how their prevailing design ethos was inspired by Japanese architecture, particularly its treatment of light and space. The fleeting shadows cast over their bedroom by the Acacia trees testify to this.
While Trapiello and his wife make great use of the world just beyond their door – including the vibrant city streets, a closeby park, and the Manzanares River – there is much they do within the home: “Elvira and I both work from home a few times a week, and we’re very fond of cooking and entertaining friends. We also love music, and I play the bass,” said Trapiello. As such, they would need a home that was as bright, spacious, and as fluid as possible. Or, as he put it, “a testing ground where I could experiment not only with the furniture I design but also with food and music.”
It begins with the open and airy, but also long and narrow, at the front of the apartment. The raised ceiling adds to an increased sense of spaciousness while revealing a set of structural beams in the process, while a built-in unit of green cabinets flush along the entire wall and a custom-built, eight person dining table offers all the tools and space they need to cook and entertain. Trapiello avoided adding any upper cabinetry to make room for some exposed shelving to display essential tools and spices: “For me, the kitchen is like a workshop, a place where tools and spices should be visible, not only for convenience but also to generate more ideas.”
Everything in its Place
The rest of the living takes place in the combined living and bedroom beyond the kitchen. The space, which is shaped a bit like a right-angled trapezoid, is filled with objects that Trapiello has designed and built; many of them, just prototypes that “aren't entirely finished, unlacquered, or incomplete.” Everything else, he explained, is there for inspiration: “I like to surround myself with many objects, which carry the stories behind them, where they're from, and what they represent.” Trapiello lifted the glass off his so-called Collector’s Table to offer us a closer look at the hundreds of fishing lures displayed in its niches. Case in point.
Since this is where they spend the majority of their time, the area was designed to be calm and relaxing, to help them unwind. The influence of Japanese design is present here as well, most notably in the height of their furniture: “Typically, in Japan, furniture is placed close to the floor, emphasizing the volume of the room. That’s why we placed almost all the pieces lower than usual, It makes the high ceilings feel even higher.” Beyond height, the furniture is a mix of built-in, space-saving pieces like an IKEA wardrobe tucked into the corner, and free-floating designs that allow them to keep evolving the space to meet their needs.
A Prototype for Living
Across it all is a sense of unstructured balance, where spatial optimization does not equal restriction but instead personalized and ergonomic flow. “I like to operate in a manner contrary to standardization, just like in nature,” Trapiello explained of his approach to design, whether it’s of a home or furniture. “Some of the values I try to pursue are: diversity, adaptation, balance, functionality, versatility, and above all, I will try to provoke emotion and wonder.”
