UNIT 00
RESIDENTIAL
A contemporary refuge beneath the sky: an 80 m2 penthouse inspired by Japanese architecture with Mediterranean accents, designed by and for its creators.
At the top of a building with an exposed brick façade, we designed our own home: an 80 m² penthouse conceived as an intimate manifesto of our way of understanding architecture. and interior design.
This penthouse, located in a town amid Valencia’s rice fields, is more than a home: it is the personal dwelling and manifesto of its own designers. A project where interior design becomes an intimate statement of values: the pursuit of the essential, honest materials, light as atmosphere, and the quiet balance between tradition and contemporaneity. This penthouse proposes a experience of intimacy, balance, and timeless beauty in the heart of the urban environment.
Although we drew inspiration from Japanese minimalism and figures such as Tadao Ando when conceiving the project, we did not seek a formal replica, but rather a Mediterranean reinterpretation. The influence of In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki becomes evident not through literal darkness, but in the way light is treated as an atmospheric phenomenon: filtered, evocative, almost liquid.
Here, shadow is not an absence but a nuance a necessary counterpart that gives light its meaning. Architecture becomes an exercise in restraint, where light is scarce by choice, and materials take on a leading role through their relationship with shadow.
A large west-facing window, intentionally enlarged during the renovation, connects the living room to the terrace and allows the warm glow of the Valencian sunset to wash over the interiors, casting shifting plays of light across the microcement surfaces and the bookshelf, which houses the books and objects that have inspired the life and work of its creators. The project stems from a clear intention: to inhabit emptiness, work with the essential, and turn the home into a quiet refuge.
The walls, clad in microcement-style finishes, trace surfaces continuous surfaces that diffuse light, enveloping the spaces in a gentle atmosphere. The counterpoint is provided by natural wood paneling, which introduces rhythm, warmth, and a language more organic, inspired by the nobility of Japanese handcrafted detail.
The penthouse’s material language is shaped by a restrained yet expressive palette: cementino-clad walls that provide a matte, mineral texture, reinforcing visual continuity and evoking the sobriety of exposed Japanese concrete; natural wood paneling that introduces warmth, verticality.
And harmony, evoking a contemporary Japanese aesthetic that blends tradition and modernity; and small-format handcrafted ceramic tiles used both indoors and on the terrace, which engage in dialogue with a reinterpreted modern aesthetic, adding rhythm and singularity without breaking the overall coherence and evoking memories of summers in the Valencian Mediterranean.
The palette of materials and colors has been carefully selected to create calm atmospheres, where each texture engages subtly with the light.
The layout follows both functional and emotional logic. The home has two bedrooms, one of which is conceived as a flexible space.
The main bedroom is resolved with precision storage through a custom perimeter system of wardrobes that incorporates the bedside tables, creating an enveloping solution that frees up the central space and enhances the feeling of intimacy and retreat.
Maximizing space without sacrificing aesthetics, it is a bespoke solution that enhances order and visual lightness.
At the center of the living room, we designed a 2.5-meter-long fireplace. Its scale and presence are a statement of intent. It not only provides warmth, but also identity a piece that brings people together, organizes the space, and offers a sense of refuge. An architectural element that, through formal restraint, introduces an emotional dimension into everyday living.
The kitchen, by Bulthaup, is integrated as a technical volume with clean lines, free of handles and ornamentation, designed to recede into the background without sacrificing sophistication. It acts as the functional core of the space, where precision and minimalism are expressed without artifice. A technical, sculptural volume as the project’s central piece.
As for the service areas, both the bathroom and the laundry room have been resolved in dark tones, creating an introspective atmosphere. This same chromatic decision extends to the terrace, where the same small-format black tile of Mediterranean inspiration seamlessly connects interior and exterior, emphasizing continuity and the solidity of the whole. In addition, it creates an elegant contrast with the exposed brick of the exterior façade.
This chromatic gesture reinforces continuity and engages in a subtle play of textures repeated throughout the home. On the other hand, the strategic use of small-format tiles introduces a nostalgic, almost affectionate note that enriches the visual narrative.
Lighting is a central element of the project, not so much for its presence as for its absence. We have treated light as an almost invisible phenomenon: indirect, low, and quiet. More than illumination, it suggests. It avoids the spotlight to embrace penumbra, where materials and textures gain a depth that only shadow can reveal.
Here, darkness is not a lack, but a language. In the words of Tanizaki, ‘beauty is not in the objects, but in the shadows they cast.’ Artificial lighting, minimal and warm, has been carefully planned to accompany natural light without competing with it. Indirect points of light, concealed or integrated, allow the home to function at different times of day without losing its intimate, tranquil character.
More than an interior design project, this home is a way of living: a place where design does not seek to impose itself, but rather to fade into the background, so that light, time, and everyday life become the true protagonists.
This penthouse is, above all, a personal statement—a way of living from silence, of designing without excess, and of celebrating the beauty that resides in subtlety. Our home, yes, but also a synthesis of our philosophy as designers: creating spaces where every decision—formal, material, and lighting-related—is at the service of a livable experience that values time, calm, and the beauty of the essential.
Penthouse project: UNIT 00
Interior Design: FOS
Photography: Germán Sáiz
Styling: Ángela Esteban Librero
Styling Assistant: Laura Ortega Vacas