"Neutral continent, exuberant content": the mantra of Belén Domecq, an interior designer with a pedigree

Belén was a girl who grew up running through an Andalusian patio, the one in the Benavente palace, in Jerez de la frontera (Cádiz). “A very traditional house,” she recalls. Many illustrious people used to pass through the 6,000-meter Renaissance building with its neoclassical façade: Carlos from England when he was a prince, Rocío Jurado or Sharon Stone who stopped by the palace when some sequences of Blood and Sand (1989) were filmed there.

She says she was very lucky because living in a palace made her interested in contemporary design. When she could choose she went to the antipodes. She fell in love with the architecture of Luis Barragán: simple, colorful, cubist, luminous. She then she was the Japanese culture and, later, the aesthetics of northern Europe.

After passing through London and Paris, he decided to train as an interior designer in Madrid, and there he gradually ran out, although his father was not entirely happy with the idea that he was not returning to the family palace. He enrolled in IADE (Instituto Artístico de Enseñanza) and began working with Pascua Ortega. In the mornings he went to class and in the afternoon he worked to pay her expenses. So he got away with it.

He tells it from his studio in the Barrio de las Letras in Madrid, a bright space, headquarters of the Cosmic Group, the interior design company he founded and has been living for 23 years in this apartment on Lope de Vega street.

He has his work table in a stately room with several balconies facing the street where the morning sun enters with force. While Belén designs a large photograph printed directly on Japanese paper, she watches her back. “It was the first work I bought in Arco back in 2005.”

Belén has a quick explanation for each object or book that accompanies her on her creative adventure. Nothing is here by chance. For example, the studio entrance is presided over by a sealing wax table signed by Kazuhide Takahma (1930-2010) and edited by Cassina, above a painting by César Paternosto. “The jewel in the crown,” he says

“No matter how many years I have been doing this, each new project continues to be an intellectual challenge that consists of aesthetically molding the way of life of some people to a space and an aesthetic”. Almost nothing. To achieve this, he has to ask his clients many things: where the house is, who is going to live in it, the light, the orientation, the materials in the area, the colors of the landscape… And even more: “if you want a kitchen to cook or for others to cook, if they sleep with their partner or not, if they are moviegoers or not, if they receive a lot of people, or if they are more private”.

That puzzle has to fit before projecting a house. “When people go to a professional they are open to listen, then they may or may not listen to you,” says Belén as he shrugs while still smiling.

His style is very defined. “I like to live in contemporary spaces with noble qualities and materials, interconnected areas with lots of light but with a neutral continent. Belén calls the walls, floors, and ceilings a continent. “We created a neutral base so that the joy and color are provided by the works of art. My mantra would be: neutral continent, exuberant content”.

The Vega Sicilia winery project bears her signature and also the houses of a long list of illustrious clients, so illustrious that she decided years ago that, along with good materials and excellent design, discretion would be at the center of her identity. of your brand. “All clients are difficult” is the only reflection she makes on the matter.

His is a great phrase: “People dress better since Zara exists and decorate better since Ikea exists.” “Our world is expensive -he acknowledges- paneling oak walls costs a lot of money, it has to last 20 years. Here there is no use and throw away. For me, success is looking back at works that we did 20 years ago and verifying that they are as if they had just been done.

We are before an unrepentant traveler who prepares her suitcases for her next destination: Indonesia. She will then go to New York and at some point of the year to Tangier and Marrakech. “Traveling educates the eye,” she says.