Spanish designer Lucas Muñoz has masterminded a revolutionary interior for furniture brand Sancal’s new hybrid showroom and workspace, CoLab, located in Madrid. Set on the fourth floor of the O’Donnell 34 building—considered Madrid’s first modern office building, dating to 1966—the 300-square-metre space serves as a powerful experiment in circular design. The project’s governing philosophy, “what can’t be recycled remains,” dictated a painstaking, multi-month process of dismantling the former office space and repurposing nearly every salvaged material for use in the new interior. This radical commitment to adaptive reuse and zero-waste transformation not only promotes environmental sustainability but also challenges the financial feasibility of typical refurbishments, with the project aiming to match the per-metre cost of a standard office renovation. CoLab is a bold, workshop-style interior where the material history of the building is visibly transformed into its future.
A Manifesto for Material Reconsideration
The CoLab project by Lucas Muñoz is fundamentally a manifesto for material reuse and a direct challenge to the construction industry’s linear “take-make-dispose” model. The refurbishment began with a meticulous dismantling of the existing 1990s-era notary office, a process Muñoz described as an assessment of every component’s potential for transformation.
Rather than sending demolition waste off-site, the designer and his team created a “material laboratory” in-situ. This approach required an intensive level of “space organisation and process scheduling,” which is highly uncommon in construction. By preserving the materials on-site, Muñoz could evaluate each recovered piece—from non-structural partitions to technical flooring and ceiling systems—and decide whether it should be recycled or given a “second life” as a new intervention element. This rigorous circular methodology ensures that “nothing leaves” the site, fundamentally changing the economics and logistics of a typical renovation project.
Exposing and Honoring Architectural History
Beyond the radical reuse of recent refurbishment materials, the design intervention also focused on revealing and celebrating the original architectural heritage of the 1966 modernist building by Antonio Lamela. This restoration provides a raw, authentic backdrop for Sancal’s colorful, playful furniture.
The first step in restoring the building’s original character involved stripping away later additions, such as the false ceilings and floating floors. This exposure brought the building’s robust bones to the surface, allowing the original terrazzo floors and concrete columns to be restored and showcased. These rugged, monolithic elements provide a contrast to the sleek, modern furniture on display, creating an open-plan interior that feels both modern and historically anchored. By revealing the original structure, the design connects the CoLab to the legacy of Madrid’s first modern office building, adding a layer of architectural significance to the showroom experience.
Ingenious Transformation of Salvaged Elements
The heart of the CoLab design lies in the ingenious and labor-intensive repurposing of materials that would typically have been scrapped. This process, which involved a collaborative effort with artisans and socially driven organizations, turned demolition waste into striking interior features.
One notable transformation involved the ceiling panels. These were broken down into smaller, textured pieces using a custom-made steel comb and then mixed with plaster to create a unique textured cladding for the entrance area wall. Furthermore, the aluminium undersides of existing flooring plates were polished to a mirror finish and applied to the walls. These reflective surfaces not only transform the perceived material but also serve a functional purpose by amplifying daylight entering the space. Even the existing fluorescent light housings were repurposed by non-profit Asociación Norte Joven—which supports at-risk youth—into modern LED fixtures featuring bespoke wooden frames, transforming energy-inefficient fixtures into sustainable, artful elements.
Zero-Waste Joinery and Modular Solutions
Muñoz extended the principles of circularity into essential structural and functional elements, including internal walls, shelving, and furniture hardware, achieving the project’s goal of producing zero waste.
New walls required for the restrooms were created using a highly modular and adaptive process: the existing masonry walls were cut loose from the floor and ceiling, mounted on wheels, and then repositioned. This method allowed for necessary spatial reconfiguration without producing any demolition waste. Simple hardware was also subject to transformation; existing aluminium partitions were repurposed as shelving, while steel pedestals were creatively turned into coat hooks and door handles. The ultimate takeaway from the project, according to Muñoz, is that approaching a construction site as a “material laboratory” requires a paradigm shift, where every piece is reconsidered as a resource for the new intervention.
