Un Cuarto en Llamas is a project by Lys Villalba and Lluis Alexandre Casanovas Blanco, promoted by the Masquepalabras collective: a space for cultural exchange and dialogue designed for a young audience interested in the arts. Located in a Multipurpose Room in the former military barracks of the Conde Duque in Madrid, the room offers numerous artistic and cultural activities – from workshops to concerts, from lectures to poetry readings. It is an open space organised on a basilica-like floor plan, divided into three naves crossed by a series of granite columns and bordered by brick walls. The restoration work was carried out with respect for the pre-existing structure, which in fact has not been altered. “
As Conde Duque is BIC (Bien de Interés Cultural), a legal designation for the protection of Spanish historical heritage”, Lluis Alexandre explains “we were unable to modify in any way the preexisting architecture, not even drilling, glueing, suppending or supporting excessive weight onto its brick walls, ceiling, floor or on its stone and metal structural elements”. In order to shape a laboratory for experimentation that would also become a place for the community and not modify the original historical elements, the studio therefore followed two strategies called “Touchless design” and “Feat. Furniture”. The columns, enhanced by neon lights in a warm hue, have been covered with a translucent plastic fabric in shades of pink: a new “skin” that does not spoil the pre-existing elements and can be removed with a simple zip, shaping a fluid and transforming space.
When switched on, the lights add a vibrant yellow hue to the space, making it look ‘on fire’. The place is designed for collaborative productions, so the studio has shaped a system of flexible, modular tables that can be modified and adapted to different activities. “The initiative Un cuarto en llamas, or A room on Fire, is one of the most interesting projects that have taken place in Madrid, and I would even point Europe, in a while”, Lluis Alexandre adds. “The idea was not to have a cultural space with a program directed to teenagers (which are often forgotten in the programming of cultural institutions), but to have teenagers directly program for teenagers”.
In the space there are 8 tables, equipped with lamps and a system for power sockets, which can be easily assembled, ideal to form a workspace or become supports for workshops and discussions. Lys Villalba and Lluis Alexandre Casanovas Blanco have recently completed the project Three Landscape Essays, also located in the Central Courtyard of Conde Duque. “The project is conceived as a prototyping exercise that considers the future of public space in face of the climate crisis. Working together with landscape architects Tat Bonvehí and Seth Denizen, we tested low mantainance solutions for bringing landscape back to the core of Madrid’s squares and streets”, Lluis Alexandre explains.
