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Architects: Ismael Medina Manzano Architecture
- Area: 60 m²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Hiperfocal
"The Unplanned Domestic Prototype" emerges as a critical experimentation in an 80 m² apartment located in a building erected in 1966, as a result of the policies of the Stabilization Plan of 1959 in Spain. This plan, aimed at the country's economic recovery, promoted the creation of minimal, standardized, and compartmentalized housing, with the objective of functionally separating domestic life and making it more efficient. In this context, the apartment was configured under the rigid premises of the nuclear life model of the time, characterized by closed and limited rooms.
In response to this legacy, the Unplanned Domestic Prototype reevaluated the need to adapt to new forms of coexistence emerging in the 21st century. Rather than perpetuating the original standardization, the space deforms and expands, both physically and conceptually. Thus, it proposes a dwelling that multiplies and integrates into other ecosystems, celebrating the diversity of social relationships and local ways of life, while advocating for a flexible and unregulated coexistence of future inhabitants.
The central element of the intervention is a curved wall of glazed ceramic that challenges the logistical conventions of traditional domestic storage. Beyond and around this curved wall, a series of pantries, cupboards, kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, shelves, and closets are positioned, transforming it into both an aesthetic component and, at the same time, a social agglutination and reflective element. At one of its vertices, the wall merges with a mirrored showcase that conceals conventional household appliances. Simultaneously, a sandstone portal from San Sebastián— the most commonly used stone in the region—segments the wall and reveals, in its own material section, the geological layers of the surrounding landscape and the methods of extraction from local quarries.
The space is complemented by a series of mobile devices. An elevatable island, made from reused national granite and crafted from discarded structures from local carpentry workshops, has the ability to orbit in space, increasing its adaptability to different contexts and social assemblies that encourage interaction. Moreover, the use of local materials, such as reused tree roots for stool and carpentry systems made of aluminum and steel sourced from the nearby metallurgical industry, along with recycled aluminum tube chairs and mobile interior vegetation supplied by an internal irrigation duct system, reinforces the connection with the environment and the understanding of the productive landscape that transcends the prototype's perimeter.
This prototype is proposed as an experiment that seeks to provide solutions to contemporary housing reform issues, integrating sustainability, adaptability, and contextual reflection of the affected ecosystems as central axes of its design.
