A continuous day area opening towards the sea, enclosed by 12.1 metres of glass with no vertical frames, and a kitchen 68% larger without adding a single metre. Casa T&A is a full renovation in Fuengirola of a flat with 117.13 m² of built area on the Paseo Marítimo, right on the seafront. The home came with four bedrooms, a laundry room, a storeroom and a closed 7.76 m² kitchen. The brief was not to extend anything: it was to divide up the same 89 m² of usable floor area in a different way.
Same metres, a different layout
The original plan divided the space into four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room and a storeroom. We proposed going down to three bedrooms and doing away with both service rooms. With that, the kitchen grows from 7.76 to 13.03 m², the living-dining room settles at 20.88 m² of usable area and a 4.69 m² work area appears alongside it.
The areas themselves do not change: 117.13 m² built — 108.60 enclosed plus 8.53 of covered terrace — and 89.34 m² usable against the 89.06 we started with. A difference of just 0.28 m². The whole project is played out within those metres, not by adding to them.
Once work was under way, the owners decided to remove the partition between the work area and the living-dining room as well, leaving it as a single space. It was the first of a series of changes decided on site.
What the demolition uncovered
The demolition revealed three problems in the building’s vertical service runs, and all three meant redesigning the drainage on site. Next to the kitchen units there was a soil stack on the far side of the column: the kitchen drainage was rerouted to connect to that stack instead of the one serving bathroom 02, the fridge was brought forward about 20 cm from the wall and the units along that run were aligned with it.
In bathroom 01, a 30×36 cm column and a ventilation shaft made it impossible to take the WC to the planned stack, so the WC ended up facing the opposite way to the drawings. In bathroom 02 the shaft did not connect to the floors below: the WC was moved to where the basin had been, the partition with the living-dining room was shifted 15 cm to make room for the door, and the void left in the riser was turned into a wardrobe for the main bedroom.
The party wall had the last surprise in store: it is just one brick thick and could not take a recessed consumer unit, which ended up housed in the living-dining room cupboard, with the shut-off valves in the kitchen cupboard. None of this shows in the photographs, and it is exactly why site management exists.
Materials and construction
External windows are KÖMMERLING PVC, sliding and tilt-and-turn, with 4/12/6 toughened low-emissivity double glazing. Right on the seafront promenade, the glass and the ironmongery are working against sun, noise and salt air all at once. The terrace is closed with 12.1 m of glazing with no vertical frames, in 8 mm toughened safety glass, with a matching glass balustrade: the whole sea comes into the living room.
Inside: self-supporting plasterboard dry-lining partitions with mineral wool, an acoustic movable partition concealed within the framing, and seven timber sliding doors on concealed metal pocket frames — six single-leaf and one double. In 89 m² of usable floor area, every door leaf that doesn’t swing across the floor is space you get to use. The kitchen is a Satén Papiro Gola model with a tall broom cupboard, a Dekton worktop and integrated Bosch appliances.
Air conditioning is ducted, with a Fujitsu Inverter heat-pump unit rated at 8,600 frigories/h (about 10 kW). Here lies the familiar conflict when air-conditioning an existing flat: the false ceiling. Using 10 cm grilles instead of standard ones won back some height, but at the tightest points — the corridor and the kitchen — the clear height is 2.33 m. That is the price of ductwork, and it is best decided before work starts, not after.
The works: three months
There was no project stamped by the College of Architects, and none was needed. The works were processed through Fuengirola Town Hall as a declaración responsable — a self-declaration for minor works of limited constructional scope and technical simplicity that do not require a technical project (article 138.1.A) — registered on 10 February 2022 and declaring completion on 15 June. That date was met: demolition began on 6 March, and completion of the works, snagging included, came on 15 June 2022.
The March 2022 haulage strike landed in the middle of it, leaving the skip unable to be emptied and slowing demolition for several days. The time was made up without moving the completion date.
The result is not measured in square metres gained, because none were. It is measured in what each one now does: a continuous day area opening onto the terrace, a kitchen 68% larger and the building’s vertical service runs resolved without anyone noticing.
Gallery
Project data
- Typology: Full renovation with interior design of a flat in a multi-family residential building
- Use: Residential — home
- Location: Paseo Marítimo, Fuengirola (Málaga, Costa del Sol)
- Design year: 2021
- Construction year: 2022
- Construction period: March to June 2022 (about three months)
- Status: Completed
- Built area: 117.13 m² (108.60 m² enclosed + 8.53 m² covered terrace) · 89.34 m² usable
- Units: 1 home
- Client: Private client
- Permitting: Declaración responsable for minor works (art. 138.1.A), Fuengirola Town Hall, February 2022 — no stamped project
- Building contractor: Martín Obras y Gestión S.L.U.
- Site management: Klic Arquitectos
- Building services engineering: Klic Arquitectos (drainage, plumbing, air conditioning and electrics, within the project)
- Interior design: Klic Arquitectos
- Klic services: Renovation project, interior design, Town Hall permitting and site management
- Team: Juan Alejandro Goñi Uriarte and Ruth Buján Varela
