Bardo designs a home in Madrid’s Puerta del Ángel neighbourhood that refused to be open plan

When interior design sets aside convention and decides to invent, projects like Casa Macedonia emerge — conceived by Emiliano Domingo, founder of Bardo Arquitectura, one of the most promising young architects, who surprises us with each new project through innovative and bold proposals.

The brief he received was built on an unequivocal premise: the client did not want an open-plan space. He wanted the opposite — intimacy, compartmentalisation, rooms that could exist in their own right. At a moment when open-plan living remains the standard response in residential architecture, Domingo answered with a fragmented floor plan, organised around an interior courtyard that acts as a silent articulator. And from that initial decision — discreet on paper, radical in its consequences — everything else follows.

Surprise as structure

The journey through Casa Macedonia unfolds as a sequence of scenes. The courtyard allows for continuous perimeter circulation, so that each room is discovered without having been anticipated. It is a spatial strategy with theatrical roots — the off-screen, the threshold as a moment — with very concrete effects on the domestic experience. The house does not reveal itself all at once; it opens in layers.

The guiding thread of that discovery is neon acrylic. A structural column and beam — immovable by definition — were clad in acid green polymethylmethacrylate, fluorescent, impossible to ignore. The technical constraint disappears; in its place, a sculptural piece appears that structures thresholds, filters light, generates reflections and turns each passage between rooms into a scenographic transition. Here lies the key to Bardo’s approach: instead of concealing problems, they become actors in the scene.

That green-neon acrylic runs through the home like a signature. It appears in the doorframes, in the edges that separate the bedroom from the living room, in the reflections it casts on the continuous white microcement floors. Up close, it filters the view into adjacent spaces, overlays planes, and thins the boundary between the inside and outside of each room. It is simultaneously structure and scenery, boundary and membrane. Rather than separating, it connects.

The living room: the central scene

The living room is the epicentre of the project and, most likely, its hardest space to classify. In it coexist the dining table with Steel and Leather chairs by Katavolos, Kelley and Littell — pieces from the nineteen-fifties sourced from Galería A —, the pendant lamp P376 KF2 by &tradition, and a sofa from Westwing wrapped in a white sheet with an orange blanket from Viso Proyect, which occupies the space without apology. The gesture — covering the sofa as though it were a sculpture half-unveiled — has something provisional and deliberate about it, consistent with a project that does not draw too clear a line between furniture and scenography.

Between the two windows, the painting by Miju Lee occupies the visual centre of the space with the authority of something that does not ask for permission: large-scale figuration, an intense palette, images that blend the oneiric and the pop without fully resolving into either category. It is exactly the kind of work that needs a wall like this — white, still — for the clash to be complete. Against the side wall, the shelving integrated into the ceramic volume — black gloss tiles, gridded — holds books and objects with the same logic as the rest of the house: without disguise. And in the corner of the space, gradient panels — pink to orange, pink to magenta — by Fuensanta Sobejano lean against the wall as if waiting to be hung, or as if they preferred that state of provisionality.

The result is a space that cannot be read in a single glance. There is too much to look at, and none of it is superfluous

The dining area: the backdrop

Where any other project would have placed a warm white painted wall, Bardo constructed a curved wall panelled in aubergine-lacquered MDF. The curve is deliberate; the colour, unexpected; the ribbed effect, almost organic. This wall acts as a backdrop for the dining area and, at the same time, as a divider between spaces. It is not a decorative element added on top; it is architecture.

The photography lights that appear in the images — with their tripods, their reflectors — reveal that this space can also be used as a studio, that the home can accommodate work as well as rest. Bardo did not ignore that condition: the space has the amplitude and the underlying neutrality needed to function in two ways simultaneously, without one compromising the other.

The kitchen: order and subversion

The kitchen is the most precise demonstration of Bardo’s design logic. Against the white grid tiling — orderly, clear, carrying a certain memory of the traditional — the deep cobalt blue cabinetry occupies the lower plane with the forcefulness of something that does not seek approval: it seeks presence. The brushed steel handles are the only gesture of restraint in a space that otherwise has none.

The natural stone countertop features an undulating profile that runs across the entire front and corners, turning the work surface into something almost topographical. There are no right angles; there are hills and valleys. And above it all, the cylindrical extractor hood lacquered in lemon yellow occupies the centre of the room with the confidence of one who knows they are the centre of the scene.

The removable bar dining table, designed by Bardo, together with the Revolver stools by Hay, allows the kitchen to communicate with the rest of the home without physically opening onto it. The SC68 vase by &tradition, with seasonal flowers, is the only element that changes. Everything else is permanent and deliberate.

The bedroom: well-earned calm

The main bedroom is discovered from the living room through the neon acrylic frame: an opening set in acid green that introduces the room as though it were an image within another image. The contrast is immediate and deliberate. Where the living room accumulates, the bedroom subtracts.

The space is intimate and contained. The window opens into a deep niche in intense aubergine — the same tone that appears in the curved wall of the dining area, here concentrated in a deep recess — with a copper arm wall light that casts a warm glow over the lavender linen bedding. Alongside it, a cream and beige fur blanket introduces a texture that invites touch. On the wall, a painting by Raúl Galán in earthy tones and organic gestures — ochres, marks that suggest landscape without naming it — acts as a quiet counterpoint to the more electric figuration of the living room. It is a bedroom that functions like the transitional spaces Bardo has distributed throughout the home.

Two bathrooms: two arguments

Casa Macedonia resolves one of its most interesting paradoxes in its bathrooms. Two separate spaces, at opposite ends of the home’s chromatic narrative, that function as a pair of contrasts.

The guest bathroom is a capsule. The small white tile — tiny, meticulous — covers the walls, countertop and washbasin column without interruption. Curves appear on every edge and corner, as though the entire space had been sculpted rather than built. The navy lacquered ceiling and the deep green cornice close the volume with a chromatic density that offers no escape. At the centre, the dark anthracite ceramic bowl sink sits on the clad countertop; at the back, the coral red shower curtain. It is the most extroverted space in the house, the one that most directly speaks of the pleasure of dwelling as a total sensory experience.

The ensuite bathroom of the main bedroom chooses the opposite argument. Earthy tones, continuous surfaces, a materiality that does not insist. Calm as a strategy. Both belong to the same home; both are equally coherent within it.

The study and the outdoor shower: the scene continues

Between the interior and the courtyard, Bardo places a study area that deserves attention in its own right. The JFK desk by Norr 11 — black, with severe lines — and the Canasta chair by Arrben with a chrome tubular steel frame create a composition that looks towards the outdoor shower through large-format glazing. On the other side of the glass, the ikat-effect tiles — teal on salmon pink, irregular, almost pictorial — form the backdrop of the outdoor shower. A chromatic gradient panel by Fuensanta Sobejano, this time in pink, lilac and green, completes the frame.

It is one of the home’s most accomplished transitions: from the rigour of the desk to the sensuality of the painted tile, with Madrid’s light as mediator.

The courtyard: where the house breathes

The courtyard of Casa Macedonia belongs to another universe and yet remains the same project. After the interior’s chromaticism — the neon, the aubergine, the deep blue — the exterior opens onto a palette of terracotta and peach, porous materials, vegetation that inhabits the space. The roof structure, with its green profiles and horizontal slats that filter the light, creates a covered space that is not quite interior, outdoor but not exposed.

The textile lamps by Kauani — one in red, another in fuchsia and cream, another in yellow with dots — hang from the ceiling like ripe fruit from an unknown plant. The continuous masonry bench in painted render, the stone floor, the Mediterranean vegetation — prickly pear cactus, olive tree — compose a scene of calm that acts as a structural counterpoint to everything that takes place inside.

The outdoor shower, clad in that ceramic ikat blending teal and pink, turns a functional element into a pictorial piece. The brushed brass fittings are the only note of metallic warmth in a space that otherwise moves between the mineral and the vegetal.

Bardo Arquitectura and emotional interiors

Casa Macedonia covers 150 square metres. It is not a large-scale commission, nor a home exceptional in its dimensions. What makes it singular is the density of design decisions it contains, the resolve not to yield at any point to convention, and the clarity with which each gesture responds to an argument.

Emiliano Domingo has spent years building a way of understanding interior design that does not fit the available categories. Neither minimalism nor maximalism, neither decorative eclecticism nor auteur design in the most self-indulgent sense of the term. It is something more elusive and more interesting: a domestic architecture that takes seriously the emotional experience of its inhabitants, trusting in colour and material as arguments of equal weight to form and space.

In the landscape of Spanish interior design, which tends towards restraint and good taste as its ultimate horizon, Casa Macedonia proposes something else: that a home can be a place to enjoy emotion, and that the act of dwelling can carry the intensity of an experience. Without a doubt, domestic architecture gains in decibels when it is not afraid of risk.

Furniture and Art

Entrance: Jarron Nourage table by the Bouroullec brothers for Vitra. 9.5º chair by Frama and artwork by Alejandro Javaloyas.

Living room: Africa marquetry side table and black wood side table, both from Rue Vintage. Ekstrem armchair by Terje Ekström, on loan from Rue Vintage. On the wall, works by Fuensanta Sobejano and lamp by artist Jaime San Martín de Haro. Between the windows, painting by Miju Lee. On the floor, Modern Farm decorative sculptures by Ethnicraft, from Espacio Betty. Sofa from Westwing, with blanket from Viso Proyect.

Dining area: vintage Steel and Leather chairs by Katavolos, Kelley, and Littell, sourced from Galería A. In the corner of the aubergine wall, sculpture/lamp part of the Tuning furniture collection by artists Reparto (Margil Peña and Ana Viglione) & Jesús Meseguer. Above the table, pendant lamp P376 KF2 by &tradition.

Kitchen: Revolver stools by Hay, GIGI nº3 lamp by Warren & Laetitia over the removable bar table designed by Bardo. On the shelves, candles by Pampa Studio. On the countertop, Il Conico teapot by Aldo Rossi for Alessi and Arcs vase by Hay. SC68 vase with flowers by &tradition.

Bedroom: glass sculpture by Día Muñoz on the bedside table, painting by Raúl Galán on the wall, floor lamp by xxx from Espacio Betty. On the bedside table, Collect jug and glasses set by &tradition. On the shelving, Pantella lamp by Louis Poulsen.

Study: JFK desk by Norr 11, Gira table lamp by Santa&Cole, Canasta chair by Arrben and artwork by Fuensanta Sobejano.

Terrace: textile lamps by Kauani, Balcony metal armchair by Hay, Geometric Color side table by Ethnicraft, Cestita lamp by Santa&Cole.

Main bathroom: Backenzahn stool by e15, Philipp Mainzer, from Espacio Betty. Guest bathroom: Fish Design side table by Gaetano Pesce.

Project: Casa Macedonia.
Location: Puerta del Ángel. Madrid.
Completed: 2025.
Area: 120 m² casa + 30 m² terraza.
Author: Bardo Arquitectura. Emiliano Domingo Bárcena.
Collaborators: Morgan Przeraski, Raquel Calvo Cubero.
Styling: Ismael López Portilla.
Art consultancy: Mía de Diego Gila.
Furniture: Espacio Betty, Rue Vintage, Galería A.
Artworks: Fuensanta Sobejano, Miju Lee, Alejandro Jabaloyas, Raúl Galán, Dia Múñoz.
Photographer: Germán Sáiz.

Emiliano Domingo. Bardo Arquitectura

Founded in 2021, Bardo Arquitectura is the studio led by architect Emiliano Domingo, whose work moves between architecture, interior design, and furniture design. Since its creation, the practice has embraced a design approach that understands architecture as an integral process, capable of addressing both the architectural scale and the most precise detail with the same level of attention.

Emiliano Domingo graduated as an architect in 2017 from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (UPM), earning his degree with honours. After completing his studies, he spent several years gaining professional experience in different architectural practices, a period that allowed him to develop a critical perspective on contemporary practice and to gain a deeper understanding of both the design and construction processes. In 2021, he decided to embark on his own path by founding Bardo Arquitectura, a studio conceived with the intention of exploring new ways of inhabiting through an architecture that is precise, clear, and closely connected to the needs of its clients.

Within the studio’s work, geometry becomes a fundamental design tool. It serves as an instrument to organise space, structure the programme, and respond to functional requirements with clarity and coherence. From this foundation, Domingo seeks to develop contemporary solutions capable of interpreting each client’s aspirations, adapting to their ways of living without renouncing spatial exploration.

The studio understands every project as an open process in which multiple scales and disciplines converge. For this reason, its practice also incorporates furniture design and the detailed development of constructive elements, grounded in the belief that the quality of architecture often resides in the precision with which materials and junctions are resolved.

This approach is complemented by a close involvement in the construction phase, conceived as an essential part of the project. Attention to building processes, curiosity for techniques, and a willingness to engage with craftsmanship allow Domingo to achieve an architecture in which the initial idea is faithfully translated into built form.

Project by Emiliano Domingo. Bardo Arquitectura