Yolanda Pila's tiny Madrid apartment is now a transforming, five-room space, thanks to the addition of novel, rolling, track-mounted storage units that hold all her possessions as well as a murphy bed, and can be rolled around to rearrange the space as needed.
PKMN Architecture designed the space, creating the one-ton rolling boxes, modelled on the rolling office cabinets used in archive-spaces. They include 150 cubic feet of storage as well. It's a beautiful example of transforming something spartan into something lavish: Pila's tiny place has more functional space than many large homes, and the system for arranging it is beautiful, whimsical, and delightful. If I lived in a place like this, I'd never stop grinning.
Pila can create "rooms" by rolling these storage units into a variety of configurations and turn her space into a dressing room, sitting area, boudoir, or kitchen depending on the need. Sliding panels give her the ability to create a sense of privacy or to hide a sink full of dishes. The itinerant nature of the walls means each of these spaces can be larger, about 160 square feet, than if they were permanently defined.
"The project is about how to allow the coexistence of both configurations, private life and work place, without renouncing spacious pieces for each use," says PKMN Architecture co-founder and designer Carmelo Rodríguez.
Each plywood unit is packed with purpose-built furniture like a Murphy Bed, blackboard, and prep table, as well as 150 cubic feet of storage space for Pila to store her possessions. This solution makes economical use of the space in her home and unlike many ultramodern overhauls, most of the materials used to construct these cabinets are available at Home Depot.
Moving Walls Transform a Tiny Apartment Into a 5-Room Home [Joseph Flaherty/Wired]
