Design firm Noju recently renovated a 400-square-meter two-story penthouse in the iconic Torres Blancas building in Madrid, Spain. Originally designed by Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza, the residential high-rise intended to emphasize the importance of outdoor living spaces. Each of the residence’s interior areas faces out onto a terrace. For the refurbishment of the penthouse apartment – located on the 10th and 11th floors of the building – the design team selected a unique tile by WOW Design. 

“Intervening in an iconic work of architecture like this is no easy task,” said the team at Noju. “Oiza’s building was conceived to be an extension of the concept of a city garden, and he imagined a tower block rising up like a vertical forest above the Madrid skyline.”
 For the architects, “The project to revamp the whole apartment was tackled through dialogue with the building, giving rise to experimentation with new materials and formal solutions that pay tribute to the background context, while avoiding any stultifying sense of nostalgia.”  
 The first decision was to recover the terraces that had been transitioned into the apartment’s interior design during successive renovations. They became the focal point of the project. To emphasize the new central role played by the terraces, ceramic tiles were chosen that fitted in with the apartment’s new identity.
 The terrace features vibrant green glazed tile from the Beimat collection by WOW Design as flooring, as well as cladding on benches and planters. The bright green 5- x 15-cm tile contrasts with the French matte oak interiors. A small fountain clad in the same tile was transformed into a central feature of this space.
 “The Olive Gloss Bejmat model transforms the exteriors into a genuine high-rise ‘Garden of Eden’,” said the design team. “The bright green glazed tiles are evocative of the period when the tower block was built, and yet they still have an unmistakeable modern appeal.”  
 To emphasize the importance of these outdoor spaces, the same tiles were used as accents inside the home at certain specific points for thresholds or for surfaces where indoor plants could be placed.
 Moreover, the same porcelain tiles were used for all the outdoor areas of the penthouse apartment, including the terraces of the main and guest bedrooms, the outdoor furniture and a glassed-in room with curved glass walls where the bathtub stands. By using the same tiles on the bathtub and planter, it looks like yet another of the home’s outdoor areas.  
 “It is a home that pays tribute to an iconic forward-looking example of Madrid’s architectural heritage,” said the design team. The renovation project has already been singled out for the “Best Home Award” in the 2023 “Fuera de Serie” Design and Innovation Awards.