Berned House

The architecture of the Berned House could be considered cinematic, conceived to be seen and experienced by a spectator in movement.

Located in Mirasierra, north of downtown Madrid, the house is a 760 sqm three-story home composed of a solid 22.8 meter-long concrete block standing above a permeable prism of glass. The living and dining areas occupy the ground floor, which is wood-clad towards the street, communicating with the plinth that defines the entrance by a central pivot door while fully opening to the opposite garden and the 20-meter-long pool through large floor-to-ceiling ah!38 birail panoramah! minimalist glass doors.

The upper floor, with the bedrooms and the study, is a massive solid concrete volume, with only some openings carved out as if the artist had carefully sculpted them. When approached during the daytime, it offers a convincingly opaque impression. However, upon entering or at night, the inner lighting dissolves the solid brise-soleil of the upper floor, and the building reveals its true nature as a tenuous, almost ambiguous barrier between the front access and the private protected space of the back courtyard.

Designed by Arturo Berned with Ignacio Rejano, the house testifies to an obsession with the economy of means and spaces, with movement and circulation through its ample areas.