Hydraulic tile, terrazzo, marble, natural timber, deep greens and warm textiles, inside a house that already worked. Casa Aroa is the interior renovation of a detached house in Pinares de San Ant\u00f3n, in the hills above the city of M\u00e1laga. The brief came with one condition that shaped everything else: leave the structure, the volume and the use exactly as they were. A renovation with interior design in M\u00e1laga, then, played out entirely within the 216 m\u00b2 that were already built.<\/p>\n
The house was standing and it worked. 216 m\u00b2 built above ground plus a basement, on an 839.61 m\u00b2 plot inside the San Ant\u00f3n pinewood, under the UAS-4 zoning ordinance of M\u00e1laga\u2019s local plan (PGOU<\/em>). There was nothing to extend. The commission that reached Klic Arquitectos<\/a> in 2023 was not for a different house: it was for the same one, only better.<\/p>\n The project report puts it plainly in section 1.3.2: \u201cThe works do not affect the structure of the existing building.\u201d Nor is there any change of use, any increase in buildable area or any change to the volume. That keeps the project where it belongs \u2014 layout, light, finishes and services \u2014 and, incidentally, changes the administrative route. In the same pinewood we have also done a new build, Casa Pinares de San Ant\u00f3n<\/a>, where the starting point was the opposite: 1,113 m\u00b2 to be decided from scratch.<\/p>\n A renovation that does not touch the structure, the use or the buildable area does not need a full building permit (licencia de obra mayor): it goes through a declaraci\u00f3n responsable<\/em>, a sworn statement of works. We filed it through M\u00e1laga City Council\u2019s online office on 9 February 2024, with Ruth Buj\u00e1n as the representative before the planning authority (Gerencia Municipal de Urbanismo<\/em>) and the complete file: descriptive report, drawings, construction waste management study and the professional registration and authorisation certificates of the signing architects.<\/p>\n The difference matters and is worth understanding. With a declaraci\u00f3n responsable you file and you start; with a full building permit you wait. The price of that speed is that the responsibility for everything fitting is yours: if the scope strays beyond what was declared \u2014 one load-bearing wall, one extra square metre of floor area \u2014 the filing no longer covers you, and the problem surfaces years later, when you sell. That is why the scope here was fixed before the first partition came down. It is how we approach all our renovation architecture with interior design<\/a>: the first thing to be decided is what stays untouched.<\/p>\n With the project fully measured, the job went out to tender among several contractors in early 2024. All of them priced the same bill of quantities \u2014 the only way a comparison means anything \u2014 and we also asked for a reduced variant, without the garage and basement, so there was a second option on the table.<\/p>\n Construcciones Montero won the contract, with a final offer in February 2024. For 216 m\u00b2 this is a complete renovation, and saying so is part of the job: the kitchen, bathrooms, joinery and windows, wall finishes, floors, ceilings and services of an entire house are all replaced, without touching the structure. Other homes of ours in the city of M\u00e1laga start from the same brief, Casa Colinas del Limonar<\/a> among them.<\/p>\n Work started in March 2024 and was certified in eight progress certificates up to October. Thirteen site visits are recorded between 30 July and 17 December 2024 \u2014 a fortnightly rhythm rather than a weekly one \u2014 plus a meeting with the owners on 2 January 2025 and a snagging visit on 13 January.<\/p>\n A good part of what you see today was decided there, with the works opened up and on a set date: the front door in April 2024, the floor and bathroom finishes in June, against a site drawing issued by the supervising architects, and the external lighting and final external paving in October. In a renovation that is not improvisation. Until you open things up, you don\u2019t know what levels you are left with, and a decision taken with the measurement in front of you turns out better than the same decision taken in the office six months earlier. The final photo shoot is by Fernando G\u00f3mez Mateos (Loveladrillo).<\/p>\n The same judgement \u2014 leave what works alone and put the effort where it shows \u2014 underpins Casa Duquesa de Parcent<\/a> in M\u00e1laga\u2019s Soho, Casa Brisas<\/a> in Marbella and Casa Caoba<\/a>, on the Torremolinos beachfront. If you own a house in Pinares de San Ant\u00f3n and want to know what can be done without opening up the structure, tell us about your project<\/a>: it starts with reading the paperwork and measuring, not with choosing tiles.<\/p>\nPaperwork before drawings<\/h2>\n
From design to contract<\/h2>\n
The works, decided on site<\/h2>\n
Video<\/h2>\n