Sola House consists of the renovation of a 40 sqm apartment in Puerta del Sol, Madrid, designed and conducted by local office gon architects.

View other projects by gon architects on New Generations, such as the G House or Sequence House.

Dany is a retired French woman living in Paris, mother of two grown children, a tango, wine and technology lover, and fascinated by the city. She acquired this space to live alone and settle into at different times of the year.

For the authors, living alone is a common form of domesticity that has recently been increasing in European cities. This responds to a new social organisation that is typical to developed countries, which has consequences on the ‘traditional’ ways of living. This argument is the starting point of the renovation of the apartment.

Instead of the idea of separated rooms and corridors, as in the original house, this small and individual pied à terre is projected and organised as a single room where the entire domestic program, no matter public or private, is connected by a gray porcelain floor.

The most emblematic feature of this house is a chest-cabinet lacquered in blue that adapts like a glove to the space and is located in the heart of the house; it contains and brings together the storage of the house and hides inside a secret space: the bathroom.

This space for the care and maintenance of the body is naturally illuminated and visually connected to the bedroom through a large interior window that changes its opacity according to the privacy needed at different moments.

Dany's house seeks to be a house for a good life, alone or in company. The house, rich in details, has the ability to adapt to different space-time situations: from meeting with friends, inviting her children for a season or simply enjoying the space alone.

For gon architects, the house is an optimistic and contemporary urban refuge where to live the Madrid dream.

“Dressed in red, within a space and with objects that look like they came out of an Almodóvar movie”.