El Octógono de Pelayo is a modern Scandinavian-style apartment located in Valencia, Spain, redesigned in 2021 by Piano Piano Studio.

Description
We found a house that, in appearance, was not interesting in its distribution or its materials by itself. From the access, through a dark corridor running through the entire house, there were rooms on both sides.
However, once the demolition was finished, we realized that it could hold many possibilities: the corner location and the almost-square shape next to a diagonal party wall were going to allow us to solve the project from a geometric approach, which is, from our point of view, a fundamental tool to move naturally but efficiently from a diagram to reality.
Customers wanted a simple home and did not have any specific needs, other than allowing them to work at home sometimes or cook generously and to easily adapt to future changes. This allowed us to channel part of our constant interest around the house, those that reflect on flexibility from the use we make of spaces, and that enable us to make them less hierarchical in a non-premeditated way. The geometric traces marking the access were the starting point to place a polygonal piece in the center of the house, that allowed articulating different spaces around it, like a kneecap.
This polygonal piece, specifically an octagon, beyond being a mere piece of distribution or passage, becomes a place to stay or meet, in which the unexpected happens. Next to it, ther...