CASA PAVANERAS: Strategies for Economical Interior Architecture in the Historic Heart of Granada


This article examines the CASA PAVANERAS project, an interior architecture intervention in a small apartment located in Granada’s Realejo district. Through an economic design strategy, the project offers contemporary spatial solutions that dialogue with the historic fabric without sacrificing quality, light, and functionality. The study contextualizes the project within the urban and social evolution of Realejo and is structured around concepts such as precision architecture, multifunctional furniture design, sustainability, and the right to housing. CASA PAVANERAS is presented as a replicable model for dignified and creative rehabilitation in dense, heritage-protected historic centers.

Realejo. A Dense Topography Laden with Memory:

Granada’s Realejo district is one of the city’s most historically and culturally significant urban enclaves. As the former Jewish quarter—“Garnata al‑Yahud”—it persisted until the expulsion of Jews by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492. It retains a complex, organic, and densely built urban fabric that has largely resisted modern reurbanization. Its medieval layout of narrow streets, enclosed alleys, steep topography, and tightly adjoined houses has shaped a singular architectural identity.

Over the centuries, Realejo underwent major social and cultural transformations: from its reorganization as a Christian neighborhood after Granada’s conquest to its consolidation as a residential and artisanal area during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the twentieth century, the district experienced urban decay and marginalization, which later gave way to heritage-driven revaluation—not without accompanying gentrification and touristification. These trends have deeply altered the neighborhood’s social composition.

This urban context presents complex conditions for contemporary architectural intervention—especially regarding access, natural lighting, privacy, and heritage regulations. Adapting to conservation policies, scarce buildable surface, and structural limitations in many old buildings requires precise, creative, and sensitive responses.

However, these very constraints also offer an opportunity to rethink new ways of inhabiting the historic center. In contrast to residential displacement, CASA PAVANERAS aligns with a strategy of permanence and residential reactivation grounded in sustainability, resource economy, and spatial quality. This type of contemporary architecture serves as active resistance against the speculative use of heritage, proposing housing that is accessible and appropriate within the old town.

1957 aerial photograph of Realejo from the Granada City Archive

The CASA PAVANERAS Project: Precision Architecture in a Reduced Space:

Located in a small-scale dwelling, CASA PAVANERAS tackles the challenge of transforming a dark, compartmentalized, and outdated space into a contemporary home suited to modern urban living. The intervention is an integral renovation based on in-depth analysis of the original construction logic and the site’s specific conditions.

Rather than expanding in area, the project grows in capacity: storage capacity, light reception, free movement, adaptability to diverse uses. It is precision architecture employing millimetric strategies to maximize every square centimeter—eschewing standard solutions in favor of a handcrafted, context‑based logic.

The intervention strategy honors the memory of the preexisting dwelling while introducing a new contemporary spatial narrative. In CASA PAVANERAS, efficiency and comfort are not at odds with respect for context—it becomes an exercise of spatial surgery within a fragile yet vibrant urban body.

Economical Interior Architecture: A Replicable Model Born of Scarcity:

Beyond its domestic scale, CASA PAVANERAS offers a replicable intervention model for similar contexts: small apartments in dense historic centers with limited budgets. In contrast to interior design models centered on aesthetic consumption or superficial decoration, this project belongs to a tradition of interior architecture committed to real spatial transformation—from a critical and sensitive design perspective.

In this case, economy is not a limitation but a creative opportunity. The project uses low-cost, low-maintenance materials (plywood, mineral plasters, painted steel) without compromising spatial quality or durability. This approach aligns with an ecological ethic by reducing waste, promoting rational material use, and avoiding planned obsolescence of furniture or finishes.

Furthermore, this low-cost architecture aligns with a socially committed design ethic: dignified habitation should not be exclusive to economic elites. Projects like CASA PAVANERAS demonstrate that functional, aesthetic, and sustainable solutions are possible within tight budgetary constraints.

Multifunctional Furniture Design: A System Within the System:

A key pillar of CASA PAVANERAS is its custom-designed, multifunctional furniture—conceived not as standalone objects, but as integral parts of the architecture. These pieces address structural, spatial, and functional issues simultaneously: wardrobes that act as partitions, staircases that are drawers, fold-down desks, hidden or elevated beds. The furniture doesn’t impose on space—it creates it.

This approach frees up the maximum usable floor area, ensures spatial continuity, and generates clean, expansive, and orderly environments. Formally, the design embodies a minimalist aesthetic, with natural finishes and refined lines to promote unity and calm. Instead of compartmentalizing, furniture organizes. Instead of decorating, it structures.

The result is a dwelling where every element is conceived to serve multiple functions within an integrated system. This rational and sensitive design responds to contemporary demands for flexibility, adaptability, and sustainability in urban housing.

Light, Order, and Openness: Living in the Historic Center from a Contemporary Perspective:

In a context where natural light is scarce, the project adopts a lighting strategy rooted in both spatial design and material selection. Reorganizing the layout opens cross-ventilation and extended visual corridors, reducing visual barriers and optimizing façade light. The use of light colors, continuous surfaces, and reflective textures amplifies this effect, contributing to visual cleanliness.

This perceptual design is essential to create a home that, without increasing its footprint, feels more spacious, flexible, and luminous. In this sense, CASA PAVANERAS not only transforms a building—it proposes a way of intervening in historic centers with humility and sensitivity.

Here, light is not just technical—it’s symbolic: it opens the way to new modes of inhabiting—more open, healthier, and equitable—in the heart of the old city.

Photograph of multifunctional furniture

CASA PAVANERAS embodies architecture committed to the right to live in the city center without sacrificing quality of life—even in a small dwelling or on a limited budget. Against displacement dynamics caused by speculative forces, the project proposes an alternative rooted in care, intelligent design, and resource economy.

The research and design strategy implemented here not only yield a functional, beautiful, and luminous home but also develop a methodology that can be replicated in similar urban contexts. From Granada, this discreet and precise intervention helps envision new forms of inhabiting historic cities with dignity, sustainability, and poetic resonance.

Thus, Realejo is not merely a backdrop—it becomes an active partner in the project. Architecture, in this case, acts as mediator between history and contemporaneity, between the memory of place and present needs.

Fotografía aérea del Barrio del Realejo de 1957 (Archivo Histórico del Ayuntamiento de Granada)

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