A former printshop: 227 square meters, 34 linear meters of facade, 10 meters deep. A 5 x 5 meters grid of concrete pillars.

Located in Madrid, Spain, La Nave is the transformation of an industrial space into a place for life, which takes place as a continuous sequence.

With very little difference between work and family leisure.

Designed by NOMOS, it is the result of a creative process that focuses on the use of local materials and construction systems linked to crafts.

NOMOS is an association of architects based in Geneva, Lisbon and Madrid. They work on projects of all scales, from furniture to masterplanning, with great interest in cultural context and the environment.

The layout design strategy starts with the search for the optimal location of the technified spaces.

The wet areas needed to reach the downpipes but they were preferred at the back of the space, rotated 45 degrees.

The diagonal partitions are built with glazed bricks, in two colors, shaping the perimeter of bathrooms and kitchens. The bricks' hidden faces are exposed in the surrounding spaces, qualifying the living room, the office and the bedrooms.

White and cobalt blue.

The bricks are rotated and combined generating plinths, shelves, and friezes.

In combination with large tongue-and-groove ceramic boards, they define niches and shelves.

The perpendicular partitions are built with a pine framework and DM panels.

The vertical development of the walls seeks to articulate their contact with the structure, by means of a crown of triangular MDF boards.

These boards make the recycled cotton acoustic insulation visible, softening the relationship with the existing structure.

The bedrooms are detached from the facade, whose existing yellow painted metal carpentry is preserved, giving birth to an added space, the winter garden, which is at the same time a programmatic gift, an alternative circulation and a climate buffer.

This space participates in the activity of the apartment, it shapes its sensory experience and gives meaning to its typological complexity, nuancing and graduating the intimacy and light density of the rooms it protects.