In a compact, narrow space, the natural temptation is to go minimal. After all, a busy clutter of forms, colours and design motifs would only emphasize spatial limitations, making for a cramped and claustrophobic experience. Then again, strenuously following all the rules is hardly a recipe for good design. In Madrid, local studio OOIIO Estudio de Arquitecture wisely opted to be bold, transforming a 50-square-metre space with a symphony of shapes and hues.

In a residential building within the working class urban neighbourhood of Carabanchel, the architects leveraged a medley of pink and green tones (and vivid orange accents) to organize the narrow space into discrete zones. Throughout the home, varied floor tile patterns are used to subtly divide the open plan into a pair of “rooms.” In the kitchen, the apartment’s small, square floor tiles are accented by a dense pattern, while the combined living room and sleeping nook are framed by a more open pattern of shapes — all made using the same ceramic format.

Past the front entry and bathroom, a compact galley kitchen sits at the end of the apartment, anchoring the space and establishing the colour palette that carries through the home. The slender, salmon-pink rectangular tiles across the backsplash extend out across a residential wall in capsule form, while the pastel green of the kitchen cabinets carries through to the elegantly simple millwork and integrated wood furniture (by Áureo Design Wood) that adorns the walls. Opposite the pink wall, meanwhile, the same slender capsule tile format is utilized in a dark green hue.

The simple rounded forms that define the wall tiles are translated across the pale green millwork. Framed by ambient lighting, circular motifs carry across the “living room” walls, as well as the sleeping area, where built-in cabinetry is incorporated around the bed — which can itself be rotated to free up space in the apartment.

Within a long and narrow “bowling alley” layout — reminiscent of a new-build residential studios commonly found in North American high-rises — OOIIO Estudio de Arquitecture have made the most of their limitations. Completed with a budget of just € 34,000, the modest project combines a rigorous, spatially efficient approach with an unapologetically expressive flair. And somehow, it makes it all feel bigger.