Exposed computer hardware and toy construction models informed the aesthetic of this innovation lab in Madrid, which architecture studio Nacho Martin has created for the Istituto Europeo di Design.
The Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) Innovation Lab in the southwestern suburb of Carabanchel by Nacho Martin features a series of colourful yet practical workstations that allow the 5,000-square-metre space to serve as a "design playground".

Founded in 1966, the IED offers qualifications and training courses in creative subjects such as fashion, visual arts, design, and communications. The school has a base in Barcelona, as well as branches across Italy and in South America.
The new Madrid lab is a designated space where students, teachers, and individuals from neighbouring communities can make and trial prototypes of wider innovative projects.
"[The lab] is a playful framework designed to offer infinite possibilities of configuration and flexible temporalities," explained the studio.
"The outcome is a hive of co-creation, its units propel the connection and friction between diverse disciplines, aesthetics, and working protocols."

The site was formally used to manufacture furniture and then as a store for industrial printing machines, but Nacho Martin and his team have only carried out a handful of changes.
The studio has maintained the building's white-painted structural shell and erected a series of five labs throughout its interiors.

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