In the working-class neighbourhood of Carabanchel, Madrid, architect Antonio Antequera Reviriego of Extrarradio Estudio has transformed a modest 1940s terraced house into a brave domestic experiment. Named TET, this 68-square-metre residence proves that spatial generosity has little to do with actual floor space.

The original dwelling was typical of its era: a ground floor containing living room, kitchen and bathroom, with three cramped bedrooms and a narrow hallway above. A polycarbonate-covered courtyard and dilapidated storage shed completed the picture.

Rather than work around these constraints, the architect took a more radical approach — stripping the house back to its structural skeleton of beams, walls and roof frames.

From this blank canvas emerged a design strategy centred on a continuous green zigzag element that traces the ground floor’s perimeter. This sculptural pathway integrates the home’s essential functions: toilet, kitchen, stairs, benches and — in a particularly playful touch — a small outdoor bathtub. Upstairs, two freestanding green volumes house the bathroom and a secondary bedroom, serving as spatial mediators between the master bedroom and study.

The project’s central challenge lay in accommodating a full residential programme within such a compact footprint without sacrificing the sense of openness. Extrarradio Estudio’s solution was deliberate restraint: by ensuring that none of the functional volumes reach the ceiling, the interior reads as a series of interconnected zones rather than isolated rooms. The resulting hybrid spatial condition feels open yet defined, flexible yet purposeful.

Colour operates as both a conceptual framework and a wayfinding device here. The vivid green of the zigzag and functional boxes establishes a clear visual language against the neutral white base, animating what might otherwise feel like an austere exercise in reduction.

TET reflects its owner’s lifestyle — casual, creative and oriented toward social gatherings. It’s a house designed not merely for living, but for hosting dinners and parties. In stripping away the superfluous, Extrarradio Estudio has created a space where less genuinely delivers more.

[Images courtesy of Extrarradio Estudio. Photography by Germán Saiz.]