OOIIO Architecture: The current trend in the construction market is leading us toward a world of industrialized and repetitive solutions. Large developers offer “one-size-fits-all” homes, finished with neutral, bland materials. By offering standardized products, they can appeal to a wider range of buyers and ensure a quicker, easier sale.
But what happens to those who seek a unique and special home? Either they have the financial means to build their own house, or they are forced to buy the same apartment as their neighbor, even though their lifestyles may be completely different.
However, it is increasingly difficult to find carpenters or blacksmiths who work by hand, and the few who do are often unaffordable for most people. Standardized options are more economical because they can be endlessly replicated by machines, not crafted by people. However, by using readily available materials from any hardware store, where the same products that developers use for their mass-market solutions are sold at similar prices, we can find elements capable of transforming a space into something unique and original.
TUR House is an exercise in total customization of a home in a standard apartment block, located in a working-class neighborhood, within an affordable budget, taking advantage of the opportunities that the industry already offers. It is neither a demonstration of craftsmanship nor a utopian manifesto for a return to traditional manual labor. Rather, it is a commitment to originality, uniqueness, and personalization using existing solutions and materials from the market. With standard products, arranged intelligently and creatively, you can achieve truly unique results.
Ceramics, for example, is a splendid material deeply rooted in Spanish culture since the Arab tradition, and even earlier. By selecting expressive and evocative pieces and placing them in unexpected locations, we transform a space into something distinct and special. In the living room of TUR House, a ceramic wainscot evokes the feeling of an outdoor patio, while the intentionally childlike bedroom extends into the living room like a cloud drifting through a landscape where a lamp becomes the sun.
The IKEA kitchen is personalized with a wood-paneled countertop, and the simple white doors are enhanced with panels that reflect the shapes and color palette of the rest of the home. All of this is combined with carefully selected, well-designed furniture at affordable prices.
About studio / author
OOIIO Architecture was founded in 2010, during a socioeconomic context marked by constant crisis. Since then, the studio has faced challenges such as the financial crisis, the pandemic, shortages of raw materials, climate change, and geopolitical tensions. Throughout these years, the only predictable factor has been uncertainty and the lack of security for a stable future.
OOIIO has embraced this state of perpetual change with optimism. The studio does not seek to control or reverse it, nor does it surrender to it. For OOIIO, accepting the crisis does not mean creating austere or puritanical architecture; rather, it means intelligently and maturely adapting to new conditions: smaller projects, limited budgets, and clients with a moderate interest in architecture.
OOIIO has learned to practice architecture in times of crisis, and from seemingly modest commissions, the studio elevates its work beyond expectations by leveraging its knowledge of various architectural techniques. With humility and adaptability, OOIIO reclaims the architect's role as a leader in the construction process, seizing every opportunity, no matter how small, to create architecture.
This attitude, key to OOIIO's success, has allowed it to emerge, survive, and thrive in a challenging environment for architectural practice. In each project, the studio explores, experiments, and opens new paths. Architecture does not have a single place or form; it exists wherever there is an opportunity. OOIIO's mission is to remain attentive to every stimulus that can enrich each work and project.
Joaquín Millán Villamuelas, architect from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (ETSAM), began his professional career at some of the most prestigious architecture firms in the contemporary international scene, including those of Norman Foster in London and Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam. In 2010, he founded OOIIO Architecture, conceived as a laboratory for Architecture and the City, focused on creating spaces of quality and uniqueness in every project.
Joaquín leads the work at OOIIO with an emotion-centred approach. His vision is to guide clients on a journey through their dreams, arriving at surprising and original solutions, always supported by the power of imagination and a precise mastery of aesthetics. His main tools are light, form, and the expressive capabilities of materials and their colours.
OOIIO, which stands out for its practical approach to project execution, has successfully maintained a solid production over the years with proposals that are both realistic and innovative. The concepts defining OOIIO's philosophy are reflected in tangible work that has been successfully executed and recognized internationally. His work has been exhibited, awarded, and published in numerous specialised magazines, books, and blogs.
Joaquín has also shared his experience at various exhibitions, conferences, and seminars, participating in events in cities such as Arequipa, Barcelona, Cuenca (Ecuador), Kyiv, Guadalajara, Madrid, Milan, Pavia, Sarajevo, Toledo, Valencia, Warsaw, and Vitoria, among others.
