In the house that Iñaqui Carnicero has built for himself in Madrid’s rolling northern suburbs, the architect declares allegiance to a classic Modernist discipline, following a Madrid tradition that leads back to one of his influential teachers, Alberto Campo Baeza, and to Alejandro de la Sota and other pioneers of a renewed Spanish Modernism in the 1950s. Carnicero’s design reinterprets Corbusian prototypes—the strip window, the crisp rectangular volume raised on pilotis, the double-height interior living space overlooked by balconies and a sculptural stair (made of aluminum and crafted by artist Eduardo Cajal). But he also addresses contemporary concerns, including principles such as thermal inertia and passive airflow.

“It’s very simple in section,” he explains. “A podium resolves the problem of the steep terrain. The living area opens to the landscape to the south, and the overhanging upper floor keeps out the sun in the summer but not in the winter.” The long structure actually comprises two dwellings, with a shared swimming pool on the southern terrace. The architect pooled his savings with a friend, and, with a budget that could have bought only a couple small studios in Madrid, built this elegant formalist statement in board-formed concrete.