- Interior
- Architecture & development
Renovating a house from 1900 and conserving and protecting the essence while doing so, how would you handle it? For the Spanish Himera Estudio this was an exciting challenge, which fortunately succeeded completely. The new interpretation is a white oasis with wooden accents, high ceilings, and curved volumes. Allow us to tell you more about this thoughtful design and the process with which it came to be.
Architecture and interior studio Himera thinks it is crucial to create homes where the experience focuses on comfort and ease of use. Your living environment should bring you pleasure and satisfaction each day; an idea the projects in their portfolio wholeheartedly agree with. Today, we bring you Casa B7 in Madrid, an ambitious renovation project of a property from the beginning of the previous century. When the team comes in contact with buildings that already have an entire history, they always search for ways to put the essence of this in a respectable light and to reconcile it with their reinterpretation of the house. By working in this way, they succeed in delivering spaces that lead a life of their own and are a lot more complex than the first glance would presume. This time, their priority was to adapt the building to modern living standards while honouring the initial constructions. An unmissable starting point for this is extensively considering the materials and finishes, since they needed to compose a palette that could be cohesive with the initial architecture. 
The most special elements of the authentic design are, among others, the thick walls of more than fifty centimetres, the spacious windows with balconies, and the original marble fireplaces. Next, the team chose a selection of materials in order to provide the best possible complement to this. Windows and shutters in chestnut wood come almost eerily close to the originals – which really needed replacement due to the passing of time. On top of this, the natural clay paint harmoniously aligns with the entering sunlight, while the furniture also remained neutral in tone. The flooring introduced one of the biggest challenges, considering that they needed to work both functionally and aesthetically with this. In the end, they selected a hybrid design that combines big, cream-coloured pieces of stone with borders in natural wood. An ideal choice, because the floor ensures a homely appearance and a similarity to the past of the place.
Reconciling the essence of the past with a reinterpretation
The beauty of this project is the fact that the original house itself served as the main source of inspiration. Free from outside influences, the team allowed the initial colours, materials, and construction to speak to them. Concerning the latter, they decided to divide the different spaces in a similar manner, namely by linking spacious rooms to one another. The idea behind this resembles the floor plan of a palace but reduced to a homely scale. In the future, the studio will undoubtedly keep on cherishing their love for architecture with a story and continue putting other projects to their name. By learning to watch buildings from the past attentively, they are always training their artistic eye. We are already looking forward to the next time that they will present the result of that! 

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Images courtesy of Himera Studio