Castroferro Arquitectura Reopens Bricked-Up Windows in Vigo's Massó Apartment

Three bricked-up windows on a north facade are the starting point of Piso Massó, Castroferro Arquitectura's 144 m² renovation of a historic apartment in Vigo, completed for 2026. María González Ferro and Jordi Castro Andrade led the project, and Héctor Santos Díez photographed it.

The apartment sits in a mid-20th-century building designed by Jacobo Esténs for Gaspar Massó, part of the consolidation of Vigo's urban expansion. Its corner position and connection to three orientations define the original architecture. But decades of alterations — including the sealed windows — had cut off both natural light and the home's relationship with the Vigo estuary.

The intervention begins by reopening those windows. "The intervention begins by reopening these windows to restore the building's original logic and bring the connection to the landscape back to the interior," the architects said in their project description. From that single decision, the whole plan follows.

What does the renovation change for how the family lives?

The architects reorganize the home around one idea: a shared way of living where daily routines naturally foster encounters. They eliminate circulation-only spaces and concentrate the private program along the party wall. The rest becomes a continuous sequence of rooms aligned with the rhythm of the original concrete structure.

The kitchen takes the central position, with its island acting as one of the home's main gathering spots. To the north, the dining and living areas face the three restored windows, making the estuary a permanent backdrop to domestic life. The master bedroom can occasionally merge into the common area through a system that hides the bed from view.

The three daughters' bedrooms are grouped along the north facade as a small, self-contained unit. Large sliding doors let the rooms merge into one shared space or separate again when independence is needed.

A restrained material palette

Materials stay deliberately quiet. The spec includes:

• Herringbone oak flooring that recalls the building's original floors
• Oak cabinetry and the kitchen island forming a minimal palette
• Products from manufacturers Neolith, Cortizo, Dekton and Parador

That restraint lets the existing structure, the shifting orientations, the light and the sequence of windows define the space, according to the architects.

The firm frames the project as a broader argument about renovation: not static preservation, but "a way to recover the ability of an existing architecture to remain lived-in and transform over time." Piso Massó shows that argument at full scale — one reopened facade restoring the logic of an entire home.