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Interior | Renovations

Student´s Residence in Getafe


OOIIO Architecture



Short description

Some investors contacted the OOIIO Architecture Studio with the intention of buying a building in Getafe, a town near Madrid, and completely reforming it to create a Student´s Residence there, taking advantage of the intense university life of this city.
After evaluating various options, they finally decided on an old building in the town center.
In this case, the “theme” of the Student´s Residence allowed the architects to rethink the entire interior of the former private residential building, looking for new common areas for the social interaction of the residents while, on the other hand, the most efficient distribution was studied to achieve the largest number of rooms possible, to optimize the investment of the promoters.
In order to comply with the premises of this Low Cost Building Refurbishment, really inexpensive and durable materials were used, without giving up playing with colorful, more fun and fresh finishes. Architects let natural light flood the entire interior of the building and they designed functional and welcoming spaces for students.
As in any building refurbishment project, the architects find a few surprises along the construction way, with excessively weak floors and some load-bearing walls that are quite at the limit of their useful life. This made the OOIIO Architecture´s technical team to rethink new solutions and reinforcements, which consumed part of the already reduced budget.
It was also necessary to deal with the particularity that the covid-19 pandemic broke out during the work, obviously conditioning all the construction process.
In the end, the building refurbishment has been a success, since they have achieved the objective set by the promoters, getting with the lowest possible investment a spectacular change to an old building that no one would expect would have a second chance so full of color and vitality.

Entry details
LocationGetafe - Spain
Lead designerJoaquín Millán Villamuelas
Design teamAlba Peña Fernández, Sandra Butautaite
Photography creditsJavier De Paz García
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