The Spanish studio Lucas y Hernandez-Gil, founded by Cristina Domínguez Lucas and Fernando Hernández-Gil, has finished renovating a duplex house in Madrid, named Casa A12. The project consisted in bringing light into a space that was originally very dark. Through the playful use of colour, the studio has also transformed the house into a place with a fun and happy atmosphere.

Allowing light in 

To illuminate the space over several floors, the Lucas y Hernandez-Gil studio added large light wells, particularly thanks to opening up street-facing facades, adding two indoor courtyards with trees and using reflective materials, such as the metallic structures that adorn the ceilings and walls, giving the house a futuristic dimension.

The addition of two large indoor courtyards and the presence of giant plants are also a way of creating a link between the outdoor and indoor world through the use of grill surfaces. 

Playing with colour

Casa A12’s other major feature is a unique colour play, which enhances the space with touches of bright shades in a deliberately pared-down and minimalist interior. The house has two predominant colours: coral orange and cobalt blue, which we find on the walls and in flat blocks of colour, creating unexpected geometries. These shades are directly inspired by Number 14: a painting by the 20th-century Abstract Expressionist artist Mark Rothko, composed of contrasting blocks of orange and blue pigments against a black background. 

The colour is used to create distinct atmospheres between the rooms, as Lucas y Hernandez-Gil explains: “Different atmospheres have been linked in a play on perceptive contrasts where each room is a space simultaneously differentiated and flexible, where geometry, colour and light configure an artificial interior landscape.”