{"id":56806,"date":"2026-02-15T09:40:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/los-arquitectos-de-corrigan-crean-su-propia-vivienda-estudio-y-realizan-un-ensayo-practico-sobre-el-futuro-de-la-forma-de-habitar\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T10:48:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T10:48:39","slug":"corrigan-architects-design-their-own-live-work-home-and-create-a-practical-essay-on-the-future-of-inhabiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/corrigan-architects-design-their-own-live-work-home-and-create-a-practical-essay-on-the-future-of-inhabiting\/","title":{"rendered":"Corrigan architects design their own live-work home and create a practical essay on the future of inhabiting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The project \u2014described by the architects as an \u201catmospheric essay\u201d\u2014 does not begin with a programme or a conventional layout, but with a question: what if climatic and sensory conditions were the starting point of the architectural project? This methodological shift is the radical core of the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cThis live-work home was born as a personal commission, without intermediaries, in which for the first time we simultaneously assumed the roles of architects and clients,\u201d explain Macarena Carrascosa and Adri\u00e1n L\u00f3pez, founders of Corrigan Arquitectos<\/a>. That dual condition allowed them to question decisions that are usually taken for granted: the label of housing, the organisation into rooms and the hierarchy of uses. What began as their own live-work space evolved into \u201ca domestic laboratory, a place to investigate ways of inhabiting through direct experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of rooms, situations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The project deliberately avoids defining itself as a home, studio or accommodation. \u201cAvoiding those labels allows us not to condition how the space is used,\u201d they note. The plan is open, without enclosed rooms; space is organised by intensities, gradients and environmental conditions. \u201cRather than defining uses, we work with environmental conditions that can be adjusted and transformed, allowing the space to adapt to different ways of being.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

In practice, this means that the same place can be a workspace, a place for rest or for gathering, depending on light, time of day or mood. \u201cThe space is used in different ways throughout the day, without needing to move elsewhere for each activity.\u201d Here there are no rooms, only situations.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The kitchen occupies a central position. \u201cMore than a purely functional place, it operates as a point of encounter and relationship.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The form of space is not defined in advance<\/h2>\n\n\n

\u201cWe define the project as an atmospheric essay because we understand architecture as a process in which light, temperature, air, sound or degrees of intimacy become the very material of the project.\u201d The final form is not drawn first and then conditioned, but emerges from the combination of environmental variables. \u201cWe understand these variables as measurable parameters that can be adjusted depending on the situation,\u201d they explain, referring to temperature, light or privacy. And they add: \u201cThe form of space is not defined in advance, but appears as a consequence of how these variables combine and evolve through use.\u201d This statement condenses a clear position in relation to contemporary housing, still largely organised around rigid programmes. In this project, division is not the origin but the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volumes that organise without enclosing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The plan is continuous, organised through a sequence of built volumes. \u201cConcentrating what is fixed within them allows the rest to remain open and adaptable.\u201d These constructed bodies contain installations, storage, vegetation and everyday uses. They act as dense supports within flexible space, rather than traditional partitions.<\/p>\n\n\n

The kitchen occupies a central position. \u201cMore than a purely functional place, it operates as a point of encounter and relationship.\u201d Its prominence reflects an observation about contemporary ways of living: the space where domestic life, work and social interaction overlap is precisely the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n

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One of the volumes curves into a translucent oval: \u201cMore than a closed bathroom, it works as a microclimate within the home.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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An oval as microclimate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the volumes curves into a translucent oval that accommodates the most intimate area. Designed differently from a conventional bathroom, the architects describe it as \u201ca humid chamber within the continuous space, almost like a small domestic sauna.\u201d Its polycarbonate envelope is conceived as a filter. It retains temperature and humidity, diffuses light and softens boundaries. \u201cMore than a closed bathroom, it works as a microclimate within the home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

This idea raises a question for the future of residential space: could housing incorporate specific micro-environments instead of uniformly conditioned generic spaces?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Vegetation is integrated as an active environmental system. \u201cIt helps regulate humidity, improve air quality and generate interior microclimates.\u201d It becomes part of the infrastructure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cThe space is used in different ways throughout the day, without needing to move elsewhere for each activity.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Filters instead of walls<\/h2>\n\n\n

Metal meshes, polycarbonate and textile curtains. \u201cThey are lightweight, permeable materials that filter light, air and sight without completely blocking them.\u201d Privacy is constructed through degrees, no longer dependent on total isolation. \u201cBy filtering rather than isolating, these elements allow light, air or even the presence of others to remain perceptible, though softened.\u201d This logic challenges the modern tradition of housing as a sum of closed boxes. Here, boundaries become gradients.<\/p>\n\n\n

Vegetation is integrated as an active environmental system. \u201cIt helps regulate humidity, improve air quality and generate interior microclimates.\u201d It becomes part of the infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Visible technology, conscious comfort<\/h2>\n\n\n

The project incorporates automated irrigation, textile climate systems, indirect lighting and fa\u00e7ade transparency control. None of these elements are concealed. \u201cWe wanted the functioning of the space to be understandable. Technology is not there to disappear, but to make evident that comfort and intimacy are constructed.\u201d This decision is also cultural. Instead of hiding installations, the project integrates them into the spatial language. Comfort becomes an active system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building to understand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If this project is an essay on inhabiting, its construction was an essay on practice. \u201cWe built it ourselves as a form of learning,\u201d they explain. Macarena and Adri\u00e1n took on demolition, masonry, plumbing and electrical work. The project documentation records this process through a detailed construction sequence and direct involvement in execution. \u201cBuilding forces you to simplify, adapt and understand materials through their real behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when the distance between design and construction has widened across many practices, this direct involvement restores architecture\u2019s material and temporal dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where does this project point?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe contemporary city demands more adaptable spaces,\u201d the architects state. As housing, work and social life overlap, rigid compartmentalisation becomes insufficient. This project proposes other strategies: adjustable systems, microclimates, gradients, filters, visible technology and vegetation as infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their final reflection, Macarena and Adri\u00e1n express the desire to continue researching \u201chow environmental conditions directly influence both physical and mental health.\u201d Light regulates biological rhythms. Air quality affects bodily wellbeing. Certain environments reduce stress and foster concentration. Architecture, therefore, is not only spatial organisation: it is a tool capable of influencing physical and emotional balance.<\/p>\n\n\n

This live-work home is a built experiment. Within 70 m\u00b2, a question is tested: can the home of the future stop being organised by functions and start being organised by conditions? If the answer is yes, projects like this offer a glimpse ahead. We are convinced these young architects are writing the future.<\/p>\n\n\n

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