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Home to architect and product designer Guillermo Trapiello, this compact top-floor apartment in a 1930s social housing building in central Madrid functions as a creative lab for Trapiello, filled with raw prototypes, custom pieces, and up-cycled materials salvaged from past projects. Reimagined in collaboration with interior design consultant Ana Cubas, the space draws inspiration from Japanese interiors, with low furniture enhancing the sense of height and openness. A custom kitchen—built on an IKEA base with bespoke cabinet fronts—acts like a workshop, with open shelving to display tools, spices, and ingredients. In the living area, a collector’s table showcases fishing lures, while a large floor to ceiling wall-integrated bookshelf and a scrap-wood sofa that doubles as a guest bed add both charm and flexibility.

00:00-00:50 Introduction
00:50-01:36 Location
01:36-03:36 Floor Plan
03:36-05:11 Kitchen
05:11-07:15 Living Room
07:15-08:43 Bedroom
08:43-09:47 Bathroom
09:47-10:06 Laundry
10:06-10:20 Balcony
10:20-11:07 Conclusion

Read the full article about this apartment here: https://www.nevertoosmall.com/post/an-abandoned-apartment-turned-creative-haven-for-madrid-couple

Prototype and product designs featured in episode (photography credit: Rafael Trapiello)
Kanji Stool - Guillermo Trapiello and Inés Llasera
RGBY Chair - Guillermo Trapiello and Inés Llasera
Revolving - Guillermo Trapiello
Collector's Table - Guillermo Trapiello
Turbine Lamp - Guillermo Trapiello
Sunset Lamp - Guillermo Trapiello and Inés Llasera

#smallapartment #architecture #interiordesign

Ep 225
Project Name: Casa Albero
Architect: https://www.guillermotrapiello.com/
Interior Design Consultant: https://anacubas.com/

Produced by New Mac Video Agency
ASUS Illustration credit: Yan Yan Candy Ng https://www.instagram.com/yanyancandyng/?hl=en
Creator: Colin Chee
Producer: Lindsay Barnard
Director: Nam Tran
Assistant Director: Julieta Duchovny
Cinematographer: Alejandro Fabbri
Editor: Sebastian Tibbs
Music: Artlist.io
Aura by Magiksolo
Reflection by Phury
Sleep Well by 4oresight

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Transcript
00:00We wanted our home to be bright, spacious and as fluid as possible.
00:05A testing ground where I could experiment not only with the furniture I designed,
00:08but also with food and music.
00:11I think my favorite part of this house is how it feels like the atmosphere,
00:16the light, the space.
00:18We were inspired by Japanese architecture.
00:21Typically, in Japan, furniture is placed close to the floor.
00:25That's why we placed almost all the pieces lower than usual.
00:30It makes the high ceilings feel even higher.
00:33I am an architect and furniture designer,
00:36and the founder of Guillermo Trapiello Studio in Madrid.
00:39I co-designed this apartment with my good friend Ana Cubas,
00:42and I live here with my wife Elvira.
00:52The apartment is located in downtown Madrid.
00:54It is in a vibrant part of the city close to a park,
00:57and the Manzanar River.
01:00Our home is located on the top floor of a social housing building built in 1935.
01:07I am deeply interested in everyday objects and furniture,
01:11how their shapes, functions and material make us feel.
01:15This apartment is a space full of raw samples and prototypes.
01:20This helps me think and inspires me.
01:24Both Elvira and I are also very fond of cooking,
01:27and enjoy experimenting together in our free time.
01:30We also love music, and I myself play the bass guitar.
01:36When we first saw the apartment, it had been abandoned for almost ten years.
01:40Most of the windows were broken, and a flock of pigeons had made it their home.
01:46The house was completely divided into small rooms.
01:49There was a small entrance room that led to a narrow hallway, leading to a kitchen, bathroom and a strange
01:55living room.
01:57We removed most of the walls in the apartment.
01:59The kitchen was moved to a large space in the front of the apartment.
02:03The ochre hallway was converted into a laundry room.
02:07The living room, office and bedroom is now a large space connected to a small balcony.
02:12This created better flow around the apartment.
02:19So, the front door opens directly into the kitchen, so there isn't really a formal entrance.
02:25I added a piece of fabric as a countertop on top of the radiator to use an additional storage.
02:32After removing the false ceiling, we left the original wooden beams visible, so the space feels open and airy.
02:40The kitchen structure is actually from IKEA, but with custom doors and countertops from my friends at Cubro.
02:46I like using IKEA as a base because it is a cheap way to get a fully custom kitchen.
02:53I like to think about my kitchen as it was like my workshop, where the tools and the spices and
03:00the food is visible.
03:01That's how I get my ideas to make it more fluid.
03:06Instead of using the typical refrigerator magnets, we made a collection of objects.
03:10By sticking magnets on the back of the objects, we transformed them into meaningful souvenirs.
03:17We chose a pale green color because I didn't want it to be too vibrant, but still create a contrast
03:23with the white walls.
03:26The dining table and its chairs are pieces that I designed and built specifically for this space.
03:32I made it out of all extra materials from another client project.
03:36Due to my work, there are often a lot of spare materials and leftovers, and I try to use them
03:42as much as possible.
03:46In the kitchen, the lights are either on the wall or low pendant.
03:52The living room is at the end of the hallway. It is a calm, relaxing space that helps us unwind.
03:59We, particularly, chose low furniture to make the space feel larger.
04:04It is filled with objects that I have designed and built.
04:08Many of them are just prototypes that aren't entirely finished, and lacquered or incomplete.
04:14I also like to surround myself with many other objects.
04:17The stories behind them, where they're from, and what they represent.
04:22For example, the collector's table. This piece, I made to display collections.
04:28In my case, I've always been interested in the world of fishing, and have always been fascinated by fishing lords.
04:35And this is my collection.
04:39I designed the sofa using scrap wood.
04:42By removing the back cushions, it can be used as a guest bed.
04:47The centerpiece of the living room has to be the bookshelf.
04:51We wanted to integrate the bookshelf and blend it into the wall.
04:56My obsession with lighting continues into the living room.
04:59Some of these lamps, I have also designed myself.
05:03The sunset lamp is a design I made with Ines de Acera.
05:08We bent the material so it feels like it melted because of the heat of the bulb.
05:13It's hot as the sun.
05:15We wanted to recreate the atmosphere of the sunset using gradients of reds and yellows.
05:22So, the living room is constantly evolving.
05:25We are trying new things every day.
05:27And one thing we discovered recently is that we could use the beams to hang our laundry or the bed
05:34seats.
05:36The floor of this house is a composite of cement, resin and albero sand.
05:40Albero sand is a kind of sand you can find here in Spain.
05:45You can see it typically in bullfight pits.
05:49I like the idea that my furniture is like toys scattered in a sand pit.
05:56The shape of the floor plan is a little bit weird and what we did is to put like an
06:01island in the center of the room with the bed and also the desk.
06:05During the day we use the desk for work and at night it turns into our bedside table.
06:12The desk is a Frankenstein of a lot of leftovers I have in the workshop.
06:21The wardrobe is from IKEA.
06:23It's just a standard wardrobe but what we did was we rotated so it accommodates into the corner.
06:30And it's white so it's super neutral.
06:36The bedroom has probably the most beautiful light in the house.
06:39In the afternoon the acacia trees next to the windows create interesting shadows onto the walls.
06:48When we remove all the ceilings there was like an extra space we could use for storage.
06:55It's where we store our seasonal clothes and more of my designs.
06:59We have this ladder we can use everywhere and after that we just lean it in the wall.
07:06Our TV is on a small rolling stand of all IKEA pieces which makes it easier to move it around
07:13the apartment.
07:14We often have it in the corner of the bedroom to watch from bed but we roll it in the
07:18living room when we want to have dinner or have a movie night.
07:25The bathroom is in the center of the house.
07:27We continue the alberto sand over the walls so it feels like a cave.
07:33We try to use a few elements as possible to reduce visual noise.
07:37A single large mirror makes the space feel more spacious.
07:41For the shop holder I found a scrap of piece marble and fixed it into the wall.
07:46I like the contrast of the oddly shaped marble with the straight lines of the bathroom.
07:53In the corner of the bathroom we have two little wardrobes and what I did was to customize the storage
08:00with a marble I found in the streets.
08:04I also designed the temple lamp prototype here in this space.
08:08The light is much more comfortable and cozy.
08:12The bathroom has no windows.
08:14In order to brighten it up we added circular windows to either ends to pass the light from the kitchen
08:20and living room.
08:22As a result the bathroom doesn't feel dark and we often use it without turning on the lights during the
08:27day.
08:29Across the hallway from the bathroom is our laundry and tool storage.
08:33It is so nice to have a dedicated space inside our home for the washing machine and cleaning supplies.
08:39It was designed as a closed space but once we used it we realized that it was much more efficient
08:45to leave it open.
08:49The small balcony is a great place to have breakfast or have aperitivos when the weather is nice.
09:01I have always been fascinated by both designs where every last space is optimized and ergonomic.
09:08I like to find specific solutions to specific problems.
09:12I like to operate in a manner contrary to standardization.
09:15I really hate standard.
09:17Just like in nature some of the values I try to pursue are diversity, adaptation, balance, functionality, versatility.
09:25And above all I will try to provoke emotion and wonder.
09:45I like to put a бес чтобы a new unit on the left hand in the right hand side of
09:47the shelf.
09:47Butt right hand side.
09:47Theед drawing is more detailed.
09:47The garden 쉬es and the entire road that will make sure it will make four or six days.
09:48The main layout is also the main layout of the operating system.
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