HANGHAR Challenges Traditional Domestic Architecture with Fluid, Non-Prescriptive Spaces

Architecture studio HANGHAR is actively questioning standard domestic living by exploring novel ways to organize home interiors. This experimental approach is vividly demonstrated in Lara House, a 65-square-meter apartment located in Madrid, Spain. The space features four visually linked rooms completely devoid of predetermined programming. Large central openings maintain seamless visual continuity between the spaces, while the fireplace and kitchen remain as the few designated anchors for specific functions.

Rather than relying on moving partitions or complex mechanical gadgets to achieve flexibility, HANGHAR deliberately designs architecture to be less instructive. While room dimensions and atmospheres remain distinct, the exact activities taking place inside them are left open to change. Furthermore, privacy is carefully shaped through spatial thresholds, architectural scale, natural light, and material selection.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

Stripping away fixed functions, however, does not mean reducing domestic life into one massive, unstructured open-plan room. In contrast, the Studiolo project completed in Madrid in 2024 takes a nearly opposite approach. HANGHAR gutted a 1970s apartment and placed a compact deep-green cabinet-room right at its core, channeling the logic and name of private studiolos from Renaissance Italy. Functioning somewhere between a piece of furniture and built-in architecture, this central object absorbs storage needs while carving out an intimate space for retreat, leaving the surrounding perimeter open.