{"id":72212,"date":"2026-09-23T17:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/tristan-domecq-devuelve-su-caracter-a-una-vivienda-del-madrileno-barrio-de-salamanca\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T08:09:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T08:09:38","slug":"tristan-domecq-restores-the-character-of-a-home-in-madrids-salamanca-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/tristan-domecq-restores-the-character-of-a-home-in-madrids-salamanca-district\/","title":{"rendered":"Trist\u00e1n Domecq restores the character of a home in Madrid\u2019s Salamanca district"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around 1860, as Madrid was beginning to spill beyond its historic limits, the Ensanche planned under the reign of Isabella II traced a grid of wide streets and regular blocks to the northeast of the city. On that layout, the Marquis of Salamanca promoted a residential neighbourhood for the aristocracy and the upper bourgeoisie that would eventually bear his name, and with it a new way of understanding the city.<\/p>\n\n

That ambition left a domestic heritage that is still recognisable at first glance today: stately houses with high ceilings, mouldings, balconies overlooking the street and wooden floors, some still with carriage entrances in their doorways. More than a century and a half later, the district retains that grammar, even though its life has changed in scale and the arrival of international buyers has driven the renovation of numerous homes. Much of what happens behind its fa\u00e7ades is decided in that tension between permanence and change, because renovating a home in the Salamanca district demands, above all, listening to what the building already says.<\/p>\n\n

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In the entrance, an original mirror dated to around 1780, crowned by a finely carved wooden pediment.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Recovering character<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This home on General Or\u00e1a street, of nearly 300 m\u00b2, had been renovated years earlier, but along the way it had lost the stately character that belonged both to its architecture and to the building in which it stands. Its new owners, a young family with a dynamic pace of life, closely tied to travel, sought in it precisely the opposite of that haste: a serene, functional and timeless house, a refuge. That was the brief Trist\u00e1n Domecq\u2019s<\/a> studio received: to give the house back the coherence that belonged to it.<\/p>\n\n\n

The work began with what is most structural and least visible, the proportions of each room, true to one of the interior designer\u2019s convictions: \u201celegance has more to do with proportions than with styles\u201d. It continued with the reinstatement of cornices, coves and mouldings in keeping with the period and spirit of the building, until the envelope once again behaved as the stable, serene frame of domestic life.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The living room and dining room follow one another in a single space bathed in light from the tall windows.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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At the far end, a wide opening framed in grey stone and closed by glass sliding doors with bronze frames leads into the study.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Bespoke joinery and furniture play a fundamental role, allowing architecture and interior design to speak the same language.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The study is the most eloquent example.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The living areas as a sequence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On that basis, the project arranges the living areas as a sequence. The living room and dining room follow one another in a single elongated space, bathed in light from the tall windows and softened by linen curtains, with walls in ecru tones where moulded panels add rhythm. At the far end, a wide opening framed in grey stone and closed by glass sliding doors with bronze frames leads into the study, so that the eye travels through the house from room to room, as it did in the great stately apartments of this district, where the rooms opened one onto the next. Domecq links this arrangement to a very Madrilenian sensibility, that of the large urban apartments with connected spaces, where social and family life unfolds in common areas that clients in the city particularly value. An oak floor laid in a chevron pattern runs through the main spaces and binds the sequence together with a single texture.<\/p>\n\n\n

The studio sums up the intention as a balance in which the architecture provides permanence and character, while the furniture, materials and bespoke solutions introduce a contemporaneity that dispenses with passing trends. In the living room, two large curved sofas, travertine coffee tables with organic outlines and a light-toned rug coexist with an antique side table on a turned pedestal, cane armchairs and a large-format painting whose colour vibrates against the neutral background.<\/p>\n\n

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The dining room revolves around the Mesa Bilbao<\/a>, from the t-domecq collection<\/a>, designed as the social heart of the home.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The kitchen, designed entirely to measure with a great deal of craftsmanship, features wood panelling that wraps the walls and conceals storage and appliances.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wood as language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If stone and mouldings restore the house\u2019s architectural dignity, wood gives it a voice of its own. Bespoke joinery and furniture take on a fundamental role here, because they allow architecture and interior design to speak the same language. The study is the most eloquent example: lined with warm wood panels, it incorporates a bookcase that works almost as an architectural element, with white uprights that order the shelves and add depth to the perspective that opens up from the living room. There, a mid-20th-century desk, an Italian articulated-arm lamp and a black leather armchair make up a work corner with the character of a private library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kitchen, designed entirely to measure, takes that same philosophy to its most refined expression. Wood panelling wraps the walls and conceals storage and appliances, while a thick stone worktop with rounded edges tops a white island with soft forms. The result is a functional and serene space, in which each element answers to the whole and craftsmanship can be felt in the precision of the joints and the warmth of the material.<\/p>\n\n\n

The dining room revolves around the Mesa Bilbao, from the t-domecq collection, designed as the social heart of the home. Its oval oak top has a scale and proportions intended to encourage conversation and gathering, and the upholstered chairs with wooden frames accompany its gentle geometry. Behind it, a large canvas in earthy tones acts almost as a tapestry, and to one side a dark wood cabinet with fluted glass adds depth and counterpoint.<\/p>\n\n

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The bunk beds rise vertically to make the most of the home\u2019s generous ceiling height.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Several periods live together naturally<\/h2>\n\n\n

The design starts from the real needs of those who live in the house and their way of living in it, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the girls\u2019 bedroom. The bunk beds, built in light oak, rise vertically to make the most of the home\u2019s generous ceiling height; in Domecq\u2019s words, they manage to \u201creveal the height of the house, which was there, but went unnoticed\u201d. Each bed thus becomes a small refuge with wavy-edged shelves, a reading light and curtains of its own. Two built-in benches with striped cushions and storage complete the space; one of them, by the window, offers a place to read or look out onto the street, while the fabric lamps with dark piping add a touch of lightness.<\/p>\n\n\n

The bedrooms and bathrooms extend that same atmosphere in different registers. In the main bedroom, an antique chest of drawers with Egyptian motifs, a colonial-inspired leather armchair and a deep-pile wool rug converse with almost bare walls and framed graphic works. In the bathroom, grey stone is carved into the washbasin and frames the window, and a fluted glass door with dark framing separates the freestanding bath, bathed in natural light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the pieces that define the character of the house is an original mirror dated to around 1780, crowned by a finely carved wooden pediment. Its presence alongside contemporary furniture distils the intention of the project, which the studio itself frames as the desire to \u201ccreate an interior in which different periods can coexist naturally and coherently\u201d. It is also the idea that has run through the district since its origins: a city that renews itself without letting go of its memory.<\/p>\n\n\n

This General Or\u00e1a home thus recovers its architectural and stately character without renouncing a contemporary way of life. Conceived as a refuge, it is a house where proportions, materials, craftsmanship and the selection of each piece build a serene atmosphere, and where the Marquis of Salamanca\u2019s Ensanche can be recognised once more, now inhabited by a family of our time. Domecq sums it up in the aspiration that guides his work: to build \u201ca house that seems inevitable, as if it had always been that way\u201d.<\/p>\n\n