- Project: AIRY Reform
- Architect: Fast&Furious Office
- Location: Spain, Madrid
- Year: 2023
- Area: 991 m2
In the historic Salamanca district of Madrid, a bold architectural experiment has turned a forgotten bakery into a striking minimalist residence. The AIRY Reform, designed by Fast and Furious Production Office, redefines adaptive reuse through a philosophy of subtraction — removing excess until only the essential remains.
From Bakery to Residence
The project site was once a bustling bakery, complete with an anodized aluminum façade and iconic counter tiles. Instead of erasing its past, the architects preserved these features as fragments of memory, ensuring continuity between the building’s former and current lives.
Every superfluous element was stripped away, giving rise to a pure, almost skeletal architecture where light, material, and space carry the narrative.
Radical Minimalism in Structure
What sets AIRY Reform apart is its radical structural approach. All new construction was executed using only 12 mm and 20 mm steel bars and solid pine planks, both easily accessible materials.
Through precise “surgical” interventions, more than 2,000 kilograms of unnecessary structure were removed. In their place, a tensile suspension system of slender steel bars was installed, supporting the essential framework with striking lightness.
Even the staircase was reimagined — built without screws — as both a functional and symbolic centerpiece of the home’s radical design ethos.
Tailored Interiors and Custom Furniture
The design philosophy extended beyond architecture to custom furniture, crafted from the same steel and pine palette. A mobile dining table, suspended kitchen shelves, and modular storage units form part of a cohesive spatial language.
This continuity creates a seamless flow between structure, space, and furnishings — a rare achievement in contemporary residential architecture.
Spatial Poetry and Light
While radical in method, AIRY Reform avoids cold minimalism. The preserved bakery tiles provide nostalgic tactility, while the slim bars and pine panels invite lightness. Natural daylight floods the interiors, bouncing across reflective and warm surfaces to produce a residence that feels weightless, transparent, and deeply human.
Urban Renewal in Salamanca
Located in one of Madrid’s most refined neighborhoods, the project demonstrates the potential of adaptive reuse in urban renewal. By embracing modest materials and bold constraints, the architects transformed a disused commercial property into a residential landmark without resorting to extravagance.
It is a clear manifesto: architecture can be radical, sustainable, and deeply poetic — even with the humblest means.
Conclusion
AIRY Reform by Fast and Furious Production Office is more than a refurbishment. It is a design statement about reduction, honesty, and innovation in architecture. By removing the unnecessary and celebrating structural clarity, the project creates a home that is both visionary and rooted in memory.
This transformation of a Madrid bakery into a minimalist residence proves that sometimes, the most daring architecture comes not from building more — but from building less, with greater meaning.
