Dezeen Magazine

Little White Box at Turégano House by Alberto Campo Baeza

Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza has extended a house he completed 25 years ago in Madrid by adding a boxy white studio in the garden.

Little White Box at Turegano House by Alberto Campo Baeza

First completed in 1988, Turégano House was designed by Alberto Campo Baeza as the home for graphic designer Roberto Turégano and his partner, actress Alicia Sánchez.

The couple requested the addition of a small garden studio to serve as a workplace for Turégano.

Little White Box at Turegano House by Alberto Campo Baeza

Campo Baeza's concept for the main house had been to create a simple white cube, so for the extension he decided to create a volume that appears to be an exact quarter of the existing structure.

"Next to the 'cubic white cabin' we built a little white box," he explained.

Little White Box at Turegano House by Alberto Campo Baeza

Glazing is positioned at the two ends of the building, offering residents a view right through, while the two long elevations are left as austere white surfaces.

To strengthen this relationship with the house, the architect installed an identical stone floor inside the studio. "Thus the two pieces are in complete harmony," he added.

Little White Box at Turegano House by Alberto Campo Baeza

The final addition to the space is a circular skylight, intended as a counterpoint to the strict rectilinear arrangement maintained elsewhere.

Campo Baeza has also recently completed a pair of houses in Spain - a poet's residence with a secret garden in Zaragoza and a concrete hilltop house in Toledo.

See more architecture by Alberto Campo Baeza »
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Little White Box at Turegano House by Alberto Campo Baeza
Concept sketch

Photography is by Miguel De Guzmán.

Here's a project description from Alberto Campo Baeza:


Little White Box

Next to the "cubic white cabin" we built a little white box.

Some time ago I wrote a text entitled "Boxes, little boxes, big boxes". And my first box-project that I created and built was Turégano House, in Pozuelo-Madrid, almost 25 years ago. A white cube measuring 10x10x10 metres: a "cubic white cabin".

Little White Box at Turegano House by Alberto Campo Baeza
Floor plan - click for larger image

So now to celebrate the event after all these years Roberto Turégano y Alicia Sánchez, who are now more friends than clients, have asked me to build this new piece. Alicia Sánchez is one of the leading actresses of the Spanish stage and Roberto Turégano one of our foremost graphic designers. And this little piece will be his studio at the foot of his house.

Little White Box at Turegano House by Alberto Campo Baeza
Long section - click for larger image

The result is very simple: a little box measuring 10x5x3 metres, as if it were a quarter of that cube. The new piece is in line with the existing one in its external walls and the use of the same stone floor ensures continuity with the house inside and outside. Thus the two pieces are in complete harmony. The short external walls of the new white box are entirely open, transparent and continuous. A large circular skylight in the ceiling is the counterpoint to this spatial arrangement.