Design studio Masquespacio’s fearless founders may think the transformation of their historic Valencian home and studio is a step towards conventionality, but there’s nothing standard about this renovation
After falling in love in (and with) Valencia, Masquespacio’s Christophe Penasse and Ana Hernández decided to put down roots. The couple – he from Belgium, she from Colombia –rented for afew years before starting the hunt for atraditional house just outside the city that they could tailor to their own style and both work and live in. When they finally found the one, they asked themselves: how do we create our own thing here while retaining the building ’s Valencian spirit?
The answer was multifaceted. Take the walls: they are well-built ‘in the sense that they will not collapse,’ says Christophe, but far from perfect. ‘In the past, residents simply took an object with which they could prop up the wall and used that,’ he explains. In some places that means a vertical brick or some other strange element. ‘Sometimes those details don’t make any sense and that makes the house beautiful,’ he says. ‘We don’t want to hide what once was.’ While preserving original features was important, they didn’t want their home to feel too rustic. ‘We don’t like that,’ he says simply. Traditional elements that remain include the classic hydraulic tiles and rough walls, which are now finished with microcement.
The couple started living in the space with ‘a mattress, a table and a few chairs in the studio’. ‘That’s all we had,’ says Christophe. Taking their time ensured this multifunctional house beautifully illustrates the evolution of their fearless a
