journal
Photography: David Zarzoso
04 / 12 / 2024
The Valencian studio Viruta Lab has created an innovative residential project that translates the revolutionary feminist works of Spanish artist Ángela García Codoñer from the 1970s into contemporary architectural language.
The architecture and interior design studio Viruta Lab, led by David Puerta and María Daroz, has presented Casa Gesso, a new residential project establishing a dialogue between contemporary architecture and the artistic legacy of Ángela García Codoñer. A pioneering artist in Spanish feminist art, García Codoñer challenged traditional representations of women in both domestic and public spheres.
Casa Gesso was conceived as a habitable white canvas for reflecting on García Codoñer's work, highlighting her artistic and feminist legacy in today's context. This residence transcends conventional design by paying homage to the artist's works, particularly her iconic series Morfologías, Misses, and Labores, transforming contemporary architectural language. Each space within the house has been designed as a spatial reinterpretation of these works, preserving the critical and social discourse that characterises the artist's oeuvre.
Architecture Beyond Convention
The façade of Casa Gesso, clad in bone-coloured porcelain tiles, evokes traditional washhouses that once served as artist studios, creating a visual continuity between exterior and interior. This design invites reflection on the themes addressed in García Codoñer's works, transforming the residence into a platform for artistic contemplation and social critique.
The house is organised into two volumes to address the transition between buildings of varying scales. The first volume, comprising one-and-a-half storeys, houses the daytime area, while the second, with two storeys, contains the night-time area and bathrooms. A staircase, integrated into a linear oak carpentry module, links these spaces.
An interior courtyard serves as the heart of the house, providing light and ventilation while acting as a transition between the living room and the dining kitchen area. The recessed volumes create a play of spaces, light, and shadow on both façades, while the vertical windows in the night-time area emphasise height and offer privacy. Artificial lighting combines decorative fixtures with diffuse and concealed LED lighting, creating warm and functional environments. Unified with large porcelain tiles, the interior flooring lends visual cohesion to the project.
Spaces Narrating Feminist Stories
The central space reinterprets the Morfologías series (1973), where García Codoñer questioned representations of the female body in art. This area challenges the masculine portrayal of female corporeality with sinuous forms that allude to deconstructing visual stereotypes in the artist's work, inviting reflection on the evolution of gender perceptions in Spanish society.
Interior and exterior merge into a constant dialogue between the sobriety and warmth of the infinite corridor and the central courtyard's brightness, luxury, and geometry, which act as the axis of the house.
The main bedroom takes inspiration from the Misses series (1974–1975), which denounced the objectification of women in beauty pageants. The headboard, designed by Viruta Lab with a tweed pattern in the style of Chanel, alludes to the high-society aesthetic associated with these contests, evoking the superficial sophistication that characterised contestants' public image. This pattern also references the artist's collage techniques, challenging the media construction of femininity.
Next to it, a projector, replacing a traditional bedside lamp, evokes pageant stages, emphasising the artificiality of such representations. The porcelain tiles throughout the house extend into the bathroom, creating a visual thread and a deliberate contrast with natural wood furniture.
García Codoñer's Labores series (1975–1977) becomes the central theme in the living room. The artist explored traditional feminine crafts, and Viruta Lab has translated these patterns into contemporary architectural language. The studio transformed the living room into a visual critique highlighting the significance of these activities in constructing feminine discourse, both in the home and in art.
Natural wood used in carpentry and furniture lends sobriety and nostalgia to the interior design. Fabrics and textures in neutral and terracotta tones reinforce the warmth and neutrality that envelop this space of reflection, softening lines to create an intimate atmosphere that invites contemplation. This ambience is balanced by focal pieces such as sculptural travertine marble coffee tables and an imposing micro cement dining table.
Art, Architecture, and Social Critique
Thus, Casa Gesso honours a pivotal artist in the Valencian landscape and demonstrates how residential architecture can transcend its basic function, becoming a space for dialogue with art and social critique.
Viruta Lab has designed a space that faithfully reflects gender equality and feminism, where the social and artistic narratives that have shaped Valencian and Spanish culture over the past five decades can be deconstructed and re-examined. In essence, it is a house that allows inhabitants to live within the ideas of Ángela García Codoñer, proving that residential spaces can also be conceived as platforms for reflecting on established norms.
Casa Gesso was conceived as a habitable white canvas for reflecting on García Codoñer's work, highlighting her artistic and feminist legacy in today's context. This residence transcends conventional design by paying homage to the artist's works, particularly her iconic series Morfologías, Misses, and Labores, transforming contemporary architectural language. Each space within the house has been designed as a spatial reinterpretation of these works, preserving the critical and social discourse that characterises the artist's oeuvre.
Architecture Beyond Convention
The façade of Casa Gesso, clad in bone-coloured porcelain tiles, evokes traditional washhouses that once served as artist studios, creating a visual continuity between exterior and interior. This design invites reflection on the themes addressed in García Codoñer's works, transforming the residence into a platform for artistic contemplation and social critique.
The house is organised into two volumes to address the transition between buildings of varying scales. The first volume, comprising one-and-a-half storeys, houses the daytime area, while the second, with two storeys, contains the night-time area and bathrooms. A staircase, integrated into a linear oak carpentry module, links these spaces.
An interior courtyard serves as the heart of the house, providing light and ventilation while acting as a transition between the living room and the dining kitchen area. The recessed volumes create a play of spaces, light, and shadow on both façades, while the vertical windows in the night-time area emphasise height and offer privacy. Artificial lighting combines decorative fixtures with diffuse and concealed LED lighting, creating warm and functional environments. Unified with large porcelain tiles, the interior flooring lends visual cohesion to the project.
Spaces Narrating Feminist Stories
The central space reinterprets the Morfologías series (1973), where García Codoñer questioned representations of the female body in art. This area challenges the masculine portrayal of female corporeality with sinuous forms that allude to deconstructing visual stereotypes in the artist's work, inviting reflection on the evolution of gender perceptions in Spanish society.
Interior and exterior merge into a constant dialogue between the sobriety and warmth of the infinite corridor and the central courtyard's brightness, luxury, and geometry, which act as the axis of the house.
The main bedroom takes inspiration from the Misses series (1974–1975), which denounced the objectification of women in beauty pageants. The headboard, designed by Viruta Lab with a tweed pattern in the style of Chanel, alludes to the high-society aesthetic associated with these contests, evoking the superficial sophistication that characterised contestants' public image. This pattern also references the artist's collage techniques, challenging the media construction of femininity.
Next to it, a projector, replacing a traditional bedside lamp, evokes pageant stages, emphasising the artificiality of such representations. The porcelain tiles throughout the house extend into the bathroom, creating a visual thread and a deliberate contrast with natural wood furniture.
García Codoñer's Labores series (1975–1977) becomes the central theme in the living room. The artist explored traditional feminine crafts, and Viruta Lab has translated these patterns into contemporary architectural language. The studio transformed the living room into a visual critique highlighting the significance of these activities in constructing feminine discourse, both in the home and in art.
Natural wood used in carpentry and furniture lends sobriety and nostalgia to the interior design. Fabrics and textures in neutral and terracotta tones reinforce the warmth and neutrality that envelop this space of reflection, softening lines to create an intimate atmosphere that invites contemplation. This ambience is balanced by focal pieces such as sculptural travertine marble coffee tables and an imposing micro cement dining table.
Art, Architecture, and Social Critique
Thus, Casa Gesso honours a pivotal artist in the Valencian landscape and demonstrates how residential architecture can transcend its basic function, becoming a space for dialogue with art and social critique.
Viruta Lab has designed a space that faithfully reflects gender equality and feminism, where the social and artistic narratives that have shaped Valencian and Spanish culture over the past five decades can be deconstructed and re-examined. In essence, it is a house that allows inhabitants to live within the ideas of Ángela García Codoñer, proving that residential spaces can also be conceived as platforms for reflecting on established norms.
For more information visit Viruta Lab.
