In this apartment, it only took a glance to know that everything was wrong: very small, old, neglected, without any view, without any no sense of escape and with a layout that made it feel impossible to transform into a welcoming home. We quickly realized that the only way forward was to completely erase its worn out features – to envelop the space entirely in a new skin stretching seamlessly across ceilings, walls and floors while concealing its new organs: kitchen, bed, storage. We redesigned the apartment like the interior of a living organism, where textures, colors and light all come together to give a sense of bold vitality and calming introspection. Inner surfaces – horizontal, vertical or slanted – start protruding in different shapes and sizes, according to the functions they now accommodate. New volumes emerge organically, they are sculptural and abstract, giving no clue as to their purpose: sleeping, cooking, washing, bathing, lighting. Surface finishes vary, smooth or rough, soft or cool, polished or grainy, yet always inviting to the touch. Echoing the layered structure of real skin, shades from pale to dark tones emerge across all materials: porous natural paint, polished concrete, aluminum, tiles, veined marbles, wooden floors and velvet fabrics. The consistency of the color palette is only disrupted by bold red pipes in different shapes and sizes, appearing unexpectedly throughout the space.

If the mark of a successful plastic surgeon is to make their intervention invisible, the architect’s victory here lies in the exact opposite: In its new skin, the apartment is utterly transformed, unrecognizable from its former self.

* The project’s title is borrowed from Pedro Almodóvar’s 2011 film “The Skin I Live In” (“La piel que habito”).