Crearctive Turns Madrid Commercial Unit Into Four Apartments Around a Service Spine

By Marcus Bennett

Crearctive has converted a 195-square-metre commercial premises into four independent apartments, completing the change of use in 2026. The project, led by architects Carlos Arias Garnelo and Rafael González García, treats the four-metre (thirteen-foot) clear ceiling height as its primary asset.

The design move matters for practitioners watching urban stock conversions. Rather than flattening the section to a single level, the architects, as they state in their project description, resolved the distribution "by designing the void and working in section."

What does the strategy change for the layout?

The original space offered an open plan. Instead of partitioning it cell by cell, Crearctive inserted a central spine that groups all service spaces. The architects explain that this spine "optimizes the layout of the building systems, frees up the perimeter of the home, and allows for the articulation of an intermediate level that makes the most of the height of the space."

Three consequences follow, each attributed to the architects' own account:

• Building systems consolidate into one core rather than scattering across four units.
• The domestic perimeter stays clear, gaining wall length and daylight that partition-heavy conversions typically lose.
• An intermediate level recovers floor area from the volume that a conventional ceiling would have sealed off.

The comparison is straightforward: a standard fit-out would have spent the four metres on structure and ducts. Here the void itself becomes the organizational device.

Who built it, and with what?

• Architects: Crearctive
• Lead Architects: Carlos Arias Garnelo, Rafael González García
• Area: 195 m²
• Year: 2026
• Photographs: Nicolás Díaz
• Manufacturer: Marazzi, Slow Pomice tile collection

The specification names Marazzi's Slow Pomice as the surface product, a detail that signals the project's material economy: one named manufacturer for a conversion of this scale, photographed by Nicolás Díaz.

Why does the section-first approach matter?

The plan draws the apartment boundaries; the section draws the value. By grouping services along a central spine and articulating a mezzanine condition, Crearctive demonstrates how change-of-use projects can extract habitable area from height alone. For firms working on retail-to-residential conversions, the AA Apartments offer a replicable diagram: core in the middle, free perimeter above and below, and a section that works twice as hard as any plan.