- Interior
What happens when an architect doesn't design for a client, but for herself? Casa Rodri is Sofía Oliva's answer to that question, the founder of SO Arquitectura. Born out of motherhood and the need for stillness, this home wasn't drawn from a brief, but from a life story. The result is a house that says as much about time and material as it does about the woman who lives in it.
There are projects that need distance to come into their own. Casa Rodri called for the opposite. The house is the personal home of Sofía Oliva, founder of the Madrid-based studio SO Arquitectura, designed at a turning point in her life: the arrival of a child, the reshaping of domestic rhythms, and the need for a space that could hold both motherhood and stillness at once. There was no brief. There was a biography. 
Designing for oneself demands honesty. Without a client to persuade, every decision was exposed to its own truth. The separation between bedroom, dressing room, and bathroom in the master suite answers to something as specific as the differing routines of a couple with a newborn. That coherence also runs through what remains unseen: a plinth that threads through the kitchen, dining room, and living room without ever claiming attention. Its job is to stitch three atmospheres into one, and its presence is only noticed when it's absent. Where the plinth disappears, a shadow gap takes over, with the same discipline.In the child's room, wallpaper featuring hot air balloons breaks the house's general austerity. Childhood deserves its own tone within an adult home.
Choosing what remains is a way of designing for time, not just for space
Wood and stone aren't here merely to set a mood: they're here to last. These are materials that age well, gaining character rather than wearing down, and in ten years they'll still feel right, without intervention. In a house that is also a personal project, choosing what remains is a way of designing for time, not just for space. 
Casa Rodri was, moreover, designed with a possible double life in mind: a personal home today, a livable home for others tomorrow. That consideration for a future inhabitant gave the project an objectivity that balanced what would otherwise have been pure introspection. It is, without doubt, the studio's most personal project.
SO Arquitectura designs for those who have decided to live more slowly — not as resignation, but as choice. Founded by Sofía Oliva in 2020, the studio carries this slower pace as both starting point and method, present in every decision, from the first conversation to the final built detail. Tradition and technology, sustainability and beauty come together, with one clear purpose: that every project reflects the person who inhabits it. Based in Madrid, the studio's multidisciplinary team — architects, technical architects, CGI artists, and interior designers — works on residential and hospitality projects worldwide, each executed with the same depth with which it was conceived. 
Photography by Sonia Sabnani
Text by Manou Raeves