When history dresses your home

By Mairena Suárez Photos courtesy by Freepik & Pixabay This marks the debut of a new permanent column in the magazine: Interiorisme réel—a space to explore design, the kind of luxury that has meaning, and ways of inhabiting spaces untouched by fleeting trends. I’m Mairena Suárez, interior architect, and each month I will share ideas, references, and projects born from a simple yet essential principle: interior design should not just frame your life—it should elevate it.

Traditional elements for a 21st century design Ceuta occupies a singular point on the map—between two continents, embraced by two seas. A city where histories, cultures, and ways of life intertwine, weaving together across centuries.

Today, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu communities share its streets, each leaving their trace in traditions, in architecture, in the rhythm of daily life.

For me, this interlacing of influences is an inexhaustible source of inspiration—fuel for those who believe that design should be not only beautiful, but purposeful.

If you know Ceuta, you will have sensed it in its streets, noticed it in its squares and narrow lanes. As you wander through its corners, you come across a lattice that filters the light, a fountain in a shaded courtyard, a carved wooden door… Details that speak of other centuries, yet still have much to say in ours.

In an age where so much is reduced to the instant click, where decoration is often measured by its “Instagrammability”—all WOW-effect, stripped of soul—recovering the symbolic (and aesthetic) value of these elements becomes almost an act of quiet rebellion. Ceuta reminds us that true luxury doesn’t dwell in the new, but in what endures; in what tells a story; in what has weight.     

The courtyard, in Mediterranean and Andalusian architecture, it’s the heart of the home. It anchors the layout, moderates the climate, and offers a soft threshold between public and private life. It’s not merely functional. Fragrant plants cool the air; cross-breezes dance through open archways; sunlight falls gently into rooms.

The mosaic is more than a feast of colour and geometry, it holds meaning. Its repeating patterns and precise symmetries reflect spiritual ideals of harmony and balance, deeply rooted in the Islamic culture of its time.

Bringing it into the present

Translating these ideas into contemporary design doesn’t mean recreating a Moroccan riad room for room, or filling a space with arches and mosaics without reason. It means understanding the spirit behind these elements and reimagining them with sensitivity.

In a world obsessed with urgency and disposability, to design with patience, with discernment, and with roots is almost revolutionary. And here, Ceuta has much to teach us. Its spaces are not merely to be visited—they are to be inhabited, remembered, returned to. To find yourself in a place that connects you to something deeper than fashion is, to me, the truest luxury of all.

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