Concrete, tiles, and industrial design transform a house in Santander into a contemporary open space

Inside a 1930s building overlooking the bay of Santander, in the maritime heart of the city, BIAN office transformed an apartment marked by a traditional and rigid division of the environment into a contemporary domestic space, both in the new interior arrangement, such as in the choice of materials and finishes.
The original cluster of rooms, all conceived in similar dimensions, is replaced by a large central open space, accommodating the kitchen, dining room and living room, without creating a clear separation between the places in the house. In this primary domestic heart, the walls fade away, leaving the concrete columns exposed, making them the undisputed structural protagonists as much as the beams, all giving life to a rough grid that runs along the entire apartment, counterbalancing the other dominant motif dictated by the use of tiles in the various functional areas.

In fact, the continuous linoleum flooring creates a unified flow, exceptionally interrupted by white tile surfaces, also running up to the walls, where bathrooms and kitchen area begin. To animate the neutrality of the “non-color,” however, the grout lines through the tiles are painted blue, yellow, and orange, thus giving each room a clearly recognizable character.
Blue is also the primary color of the entire space, identifying the fixed furniture made for the kitchen cabinetry and the bedroom closets, the latter acting as backgrounds for the bay view characterizing the bedrooms as they are positioned along the perimeter strip of the apartment.

The general lighting echoes that sort of underground aesthetic dictated by the structural elements, with tracks of spotlights and neon tubes with exposed cables and conduits, so that all choices converge towards the definition of a contemporary domesticity, essential yet comfortable.