A Family’s Quest for Color Culminates in This Brightly Tiled Madrid Apartment

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Project Details:

Location: Madrid, Spain

Architect: Sierra De La Higuera / @sierra.delahiguera

Year: 2022

Photographer: Germán Saiz

From the Architect: "Our clients wanted to bring part of their origins to Madrid. Plus, they are avid travellers—she is Mexican and he Galician—so they yearned to bring a family influence to their new home. This project is the outcome of a quest to find color in Madrid, a characteristic marked by the owners’ journeys and origins.

"We focused on vivid colors: bright yellows, greens, blues, and reds paired with materials like tiles, ceramics, and fine wood. They are all cool materials in bright colors brought from distant, exotic locales. White tile combines with blue, red, or yellow in different areas and is finished by edging to frame the different zones.

"The entrance hall was designed with a wooden box separating two zones: the kitchen-dining room, inspired by Mexico, and the terraces and living room, inspired by Singapore. The latter was designed with tile in a very linear yellow and white surface which pops even more when the sunlight hits it.

"In contrast, glazed green tiles were used in the kitchen, which echoes the upholstery of the same color in the living room. A large bookshelf running around the kitchen, dining room, and living room area, where much of the time is spent, was also designed. This element is very important to the clients, as they hold all the objects they have collected on each of their journeys, in addition to all their books.

"We wanted the private area to be cozy, so we suggested a cloud-gray carpet, which conveys calmness and evokes Galicia."