White kitchens that leave their mark in changing Spanish homes

As the most poker-faced of neutral colours, white may seem least suitable when it comes to characterful kitchen decor. In the crisis-hit Spanish housing market, however, where prices are expanding and floor plans shrinking at almost the same rate, first-time buyers are desperate to get a foothold, and in a one- or two-person household, kitchen space is one of the first casualties.

While darker surfaces simply absorb and waste the little natural light that reaches them, white surfaces continuously reflect it instead, providing a clean, fresh space it’s a joy to spend time in. These four projects from both urban and rural Spain evidence the welcoming and surprisingly warm tone of an expanded white kitchen.

‘The average cost of a home in Madrid is beyond the reach of most people,’ reveal the Rio House architects, HANGHAR, on the focus of their project. Everything from the layout to the material and even colour choices in the small apartment is centred around driving down costs for those who move in. ‘The project tackles the situation by providing a raw, unfinished setting that allows the inhabitants to renovate their home within a limited budget.’

‘The naked scenario poses the possibility of allowing future interventions to occur’ explains HANGHAR. Because while the raw white, grey and aluminium surfaces may not be to everyone’s taste, they present a blank canvas on which new residents can stamp their own personality and style, without ripping it all out to expensively start again.

As if to exemplify exactly where the Rio House succeeds, the Gracia House renovation highlights its own previous failures. The couple living in the home wanted to make the small space suitable for their growing family and workplace. In order to open up into a modern, flexible space for the couple’s modern lifestyle, architects Roman Izquierdo Bouldstridge set out to demolish the interior barriers, refreshing and renewing the environment.

‘Seeking to promote the incidence of natural light in the deepest areas of the dwelling,’ as the architects explain, slender wood-framed glass sliding doors provide acoustic and olfactive insulation from the kitchen, while enclosing the space between wooden floors and a ceramic Catalan ceiling, providing a light yet warm atmosphere.

In the small Spanish fishing village of Luanco, the Gozana House is heavily restricted by its narrow half-size plot. With only this thin footprint to work with, Isla Architects and Mori Meana Architecture set about expanding the space visually, instead of physically. By almost obsessively ensuring each kitchen surface – from the cabinet fronts to the tiled splash backs, and even the extractor and kitchen tap – was finished in ice white, the kitchen melts away into the wall when not in use, hiding its proximity to the rest of the room.

The white-on-white kitchen is accented perfectly with bi-fold door frames painted in a deep blue, drawing the eye out towards the open exterior and away from the interior space, ‘blurring the limit between interior and exterior,’ as the architects explain.

The Langdon House renovation doesn’t claim to be the end of the building’s story, it is merely another chapter. Currently a family home for four, but previously a paediatrician’s office, and who knows what will come next? In order to make the house suitable for its current needs, a large, central open space was connected to the outdoor terrace by ‘eliminating several partitions that excessively compartmentalised the property,’ explain the architects.

Instead of literally plastering over the past in an attempt to cover the marks made by these previous partitions, it was agreed instead to celebrate and highlight them by applying a white palette throughout the open-concept kitchen. A complementing materials palette includes white ceramics made locally on Mallorca, along with sustainable forest management-certified wood that adds a natural warmth to the story, too.

© Architonic

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