What does the word “burrow” mean to you" Most of us likely think of rabbits and other small, gentle mammals building their little nests underground, creating safe places for their babies. For Spanish architects DeLaVegaCanolasso, it connotes “the house as a lair, a hideout, a shelter.” When they gave this name to a recent home they created outside Madrid, they envisioned a place that offered refuge while maintaining a connection to nature.

“La Madriguera (The Burrow)” is a renovation of an old wooden hut previously used as a painting studio, with the addition of an unusual new volume. Tucked between the mature trees of a heavily wooded lot, the hut looks like the cottage of a wizened hermit. Subterranean animal burrows may be dark and enclosed, but when you step inside this space, you’ll be greeted with nothing but light.
The hut, which now contains the kitchen, dining room, lounge, and studio, is lined with bright white surfaces and pierced by generously sized skylights, filling all the rooms with natural light. Custom designed furniture like bench-style sofas and desks and built-in niches and shelves line the walls, making the most of the modest square footage and allowing the space to feel larger and more open.
But it’s the home’s addition that really shines — literally. Consisting of a prefabricated steel structure featuring recycled OSB panels, cork, and recycled cotton insulation, the volume containing...