Casa Arco: an architecture by Ábaton designed to live with art

In this residential project, the Madrid-based studio Ábaton approaches an unusual premise in contemporary housing: designing architecture as an active support for the experience of art. Casa Arco emerges from the commission of a family deeply connected to the collecting of contemporary art, who envisioned their future home not only as a place to live, but also as a space capable of entering into dialogue with artworks, colour and everyday life.

From the outset, the project is conceived as an integral whole in which architecture, interior design and landscape design share a common language. The aim is to construct a domestic framework where artistic pieces can coexist naturally with family life. Architecture therefore acts as a silent background that organises, orders and enhances the presence of art.

The house is structured into two differentiated realms: one more public, intended for social interaction and welcoming guests, and another connected to family life. Between them appears a central core that organises the house from the entrance. Access is through a pivoting door that leads to a space presided over by a cantilevered concrete staircase. Almost sculptural in character, the piece stands in front of a large window oriented towards the north garden, allowing vegetation and the passing of the seasons to become a permanent presence inside the home.

The east wing hosts the area designed for sharing with guests. The living room, dining room and kitchen unfold in a fluid sequence of spaces that open completely to the exterior through large sliding joinery. During the warmer months, this area transforms into a generous continuous porch that extends domestic life into the garden.

In the living room, architecture adopts a deliberately restrained attitude: the exposed wooden structure and minimalist finishes create a neutral background where both the furniture pieces — such as the Costela armchairs by Tacchini — and contemporary artworks stand out, including Gemelares by Luis Gordillo. The exterior landscape introduces colour through vegetation, establishing a constant dialogue between interior and garden.

The dining room is conceived almost as an exhibition space. The scene is presided over by a large-format painting by José Luis Alexanco, whose presence is balanced by the lightness of the Simbiosi luminaire designed by Davide Groppi. The kitchen, designed by Ábaton itself, is organised around a large central island and also embraces colour as a compositional element.

In the west wing lies the most everyday sphere of the house, dedicated to family life. Here the space unfolds through subtle level changes that organise different areas.

The living room in this zone is slightly sunken into the terrain, creating a sheltered atmosphere surrounded by stepped masses of vegetation. From here, the gaze is enveloped by the colour of the garden. In this space coexist works such as the sculpture by Xavier Mascaró and Axuk by Juanjo Maillo, alongside contemporary design pieces including the Bend-Sofa by Patricia Urquiola and the TMM lamp designed by Miguel Milá.

On a slightly higher level there is an open kitchen with a marble countertop and an informal space for the family. This sector also incorporates a study, a guest toilet and a small glazed gym that sits almost like a room within the vegetation, reinforcing the sense of continuity between interior and exterior.

The meeting point between both realms once again takes place in the staircase space. Illuminated by the large window, the concrete piece acts both as a spatial hinge and as a pause in the journey through the house.

The upper floor accommodates the most private uses. Two children’s bedrooms are organised around a shared room conceived as a flexible space for play, study or rest. Even here, art finds its place as a natural part of the domestic atmosphere.

In a more secluded area are located a second study and the main suite. The bedroom opens onto a generous planted terrace that extends the room outward. The bathroom, luminous and open, integrates a shower and a freestanding bathtub facing the garden, establishing a direct relationship with the landscape. Dressing room, bedroom and terrace unfold as a continuous sequence of spaces that blur the limits between interior and nature.

The garden completes the project following New Perennial criteria, with a naturalistic composition based on grasses and perennial plants that evolve with the seasons. The central meadow coexists with freer plant masses that provide texture, movement and biodiversity, creating a favourable ecosystem for birds and pollinating insects.

Among the vegetation appear different paths and small areas: a pavilion with an outdoor dining space conceived as a room open to the landscape, resting areas and reading corners under the shade of the trees. Here the garden acts as an active extension of the architecture.

In Casa Arco, architecture serves a way of living in which art, landscape and everyday life coexist actively. The project built by Ábaton thus proposes a delicate balance between architectural restraint and artistic expressiveness: a house designed to live, contemplate and share.

Project: Casa Arco.
Location: Madrid.
Area: 1,000 m² of built space and a 3,500 m² plot
Completed: 2024.
Architecture: Ábaton Arquitectura.
Photography: Belén Imaz y Derek Pedrós.
Source: Ábaton Arquitectura.

Ábaton Arquitectura

Since its foundation in 1998, Ábaton has established itself as one of Spain’s most influential architecture studios. Its work, renowned for its formal honesty and conceptual depth, is guided by a clear philosophy: to eliminate the superfluous in order to reach the essential. For Ábaton, architecture is not only a matter of space, but a form of intimate conversation —with oneself, with others, and with nature.

In a world saturated with stimuli, Ábaton reclaims the power of architectural silence. Its projects reflect an aesthetic that transcends reason to focus on the vital experience of those who inhabit them. They design spaces that embrace and converse with their surroundings.

Committed to sustainability from the beginning, Ábaton was among the first studios in Spain to use CLT timber, and has built more houses with this system than any other practice in the country. They use recyclable materials, plan with bioclimatic criteria, and minimize the environmental footprint of each project. Their architecture respects both place and time: homes that aspire to be timeless, lasting and conscious.

In addition to new builds, Ábaton has carried out more than 300 refurbishments, understanding that to restore is also to create. Their comprehensive approach —encompassing design, construction and execution— ensures coherence, precision and beauty at every stage of the process.

Today, with more than 500 completed projects, Ábaton continues to create new ways of living —freer, more empathetic, more human. In their spaces, one breathes an architecture meant more to be felt than to be seen.

Camino Alonso is an architect and Creative Director at Ábaton Arquitectura, the studio she founded in 1998 together with architect Ignacio Lechón and industrial engineer Carlos Alonso.

Project by Ábaton Arquitectura