URBAN SHELTER, MADRID - OHLAB ARCHITECTS

URBAN SHELTER, MADRID
Paloma Hernaiz - Jaime Oliver - ΟΗLAB Architects - Spain

Biography

Paloma Hernaiz and Jaime Oliver direct OHLAB, an office devoted to urban analysis and cultural research of contemporary society through design, architectural practice and urban strategy. Prior establishing OHLAB in Madrid they gained 9 years of professional experience in New York, Shanghai and Beijing collaborating in prestigious architectural offices such as OMA / Rem Koolhaas. They received their diploma in Architecture from the ETSAM in Madrid (Paloma), ETSAB in Barcelona (Jaime) and they both hold a postgraduate degree (MSAAD) from Columbia University in New York.

Paloma and Jaime are coordinating teachers at IED Design Degree in Madrid, they taught at “La Gran Escala” Master from UPC in Barcelona and have been critics at different design juries at Princeton and Columbia University in New York and at Universidad Europea in Madrid. They have given lectures about their work in various institutions such as Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya, Universidad Europea de Madrid, or Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Their work has been widely published internationally in publications such as Architectural Record, Interior Design, Detail, FRAME, AD, Arquitectura Viva, Panorama, Metalocus, A10, El Pais Semanal, Elle or Vogue among others.

In 2010 opened the first exhibition about OHLAB’s work at Magnus Müller Gallery, Berlin and subsequently at the Architecture Museum of Moscow. The exhibition was curated by Tina diCarlo, former curator of architecture and design at the New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

OHLAB has been the Winner of the Great Indoors Award 2013, the Winner of WAN Awards 2012, awarded with special mention at the 2013 A+ Architizer Awards, selected as Finalist for the INTERIOR DESIGN 2012 Best of the Year Awards in New York City, nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2011 (European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture), cataloged for the Arquia Proxima 2010/2011 prize (Fundación Caja de Arquitectos) and finalist in the 2010 Saloni Architecture Awards.

URBAN SHELTER, MADRID

Photos: Miguel de Guzmán

Architecture and interior design: OHLAB / Paloma Hernaiz y Jaime Oliver

Construction management: Paloma Hernaiz, Jaime Oliver

OHLAB colaborators : Ana Pereira, Michelle James

This penthouse has a peculiar typology: besides its reduced size and its location within the fulfilled city center it pretends to be a detached house; it is an urban shelter in the center of Madrid.

The project started like a game, how to incorporate 15 desires or fantasies of a couple within a small rooftop. Some of these wishes were a bit uncommon for small urban apartments: simultaneous indoor/outdoor shower, breakfast with views, picnic in the park, golf at home, bathing on the countryside, cooking in the middle of the house, sunset cocktail bar, dining under the stars, exhibitionist theater in the living room, etc.

Three curtains made out of artificial materials, in combination with a collection of special details, provoke a series of unexpected moments within the limited space of the house: a 10-meter white leather curtain organizes the program on the lower level hiding or unveiling the office, the kitchen and the wardrobe; a gold curtain covers the indoor/outdoor shower framing Madrid’s skyline; a cantilevered stair gives access to the upper level, through a door installed on the floor and counterbalanced with a hanging stone, where a grass curtain wraps the bedroom floor and the terrace converting the mezzanine into a small park overlooking the city.

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URBAN SHELTER, MADRID Paloma Hernaiz - Jaime Oliver - ΟΗLAB Architects - Spain

URBAN SHELTER, MADRID
Paloma Hernaiz - Jaime Oliver - ΟΗLAB Architects - Spain