Open House Madrid, the architectural and city festival that takes place one weekend a year keeps standing strong in the capital and working every year to take us a little bit closer the best selection of buildings in Madrid. Buildings have been patiently waiting one year for this event, as they are eager to receive a different profile of what they are used to.
There are so many buildings to visit that the most difficult part is going to have time to visit all of them and also deciding which ones to visit. As Media Partner, in METALOCUS we are pretty conscious about it, so we have already made the job easy by adding 5 of our favorites buildings from this edition to the 10 recommendations selected last year. The five recommendations such as Castellana 81 by Sáenz de Oiza, the rehabilitation of Escuelas Pías, the new BBVA Headquarters by Herzog and de Meuron, the iconic Lucio Muñoz House, the SOLO Space by estudio Herreros will be opened from the 30th of September until the 1st of October. We hope that with this pieces of information you find it easier to make your own list!
In addition, as The third edition of the Open House Madrid festival pays this year tribute to Sáenz de Oiza by a route through some of the buildings that the architect designed.
There are so many buildings to visit that the most difficult part is going to have time to visit all of them and also deciding which ones to visit. As Media Partner, in METALOCUS we are pretty conscious about it, so we have already made the job easy by adding 5 of our favorites buildings from this edition to the 10 recommendations selected last year. The five recommendations such as Castellana 81 by Sáenz de Oiza, the rehabilitation of Escuelas Pías, the new BBVA Headquarters by Herzog and de Meuron, the iconic Lucio Muñoz House, the SOLO Space by estudio Herreros will be opened from the 30th of September until the 1st of October. We hope that with this pieces of information you find it easier to make your own list!
In addition, as The third edition of the Open House Madrid festival pays this year tribute to Sáenz de Oiza by a route through some of the buildings that the architect designed.
21 Recommendations for Open House Madrid 2017 by METALOCUS
Castellana 81
With 107 meters of height, 37 floors and little more than 36 years (the project was built between 1978 and 1981), the current tower, designed by Fco Javier Sáenz de Oiza, was initially known as the tower of Banco Bilbao, through BBV and BBVA. Now, after its sale and a rather respectful remodeling realized by the study of Ruíz Barbarín Arquitectos, happens to be well-known like Castellana 81, is a reference of the architecture of the XX century in Madrid and Spain, the tower rises in one of the Corners of the Castellana, in the block known as AZCA, an area with shopping centers and offices where it was tried to emulate the modernity image of American cities in the 1970s.
Escuelas Pías
Built between 1996 and 2004, the headquarters of UNED Escuelas Pías in Lavapies is an absolutely unique work with a difficult classification, since it covers areas linked to restoration, renovation and new construction. Even so, the project as a whole forms an inseparable unit that dialogues between itself, so that past and present overlap in this building.
Headquarters BBVA
The headquarters BBVA, by Herzog & de Meuron, is one of the buildings that Open House invites us to visit this year. The construction building began in 2009 and ended two years ago, in 2015. The building includes BBVA bank offices, as well as gardens and courtyards, common and commercial services, among others. It is characterized by its circular vertical element, like a tower, called La Vela in contrast to its very linear horizontal base. In addition, the treatment of the façade by brise-soleils makes the facade acquire a certain texture.
Lucio Muñoz House
Immersed in the dense and dry vegetation of the Sierra (in Calle Jardines No. 13 of Torrelodones) is located La Casa Lucio Muñoz, a house in which the stone stands out as the main building material and its enormous decks, many of them in cantilever and currently covered by ferns and climbing plants. The whole area is surrounded by large cypress trees.
SOLO Space
The project designed by estudio Herreros, wants to become the expression and the mirror of its promoters, who looked for a project with coordinates in the present. The project will host a collection of artistic creations linked to the post-pop movement and post-street-art in all its formats.
Regional Archives of Madrid and Joaquín Leguina Library
The Regional Archives of the Community of Madrid is part of the so-called "Complejo El Águila" [The Eagle complex] space that originally hosted the former brewery of the same name. Do not forget that although the two spaces, Archive and Library, are part of a single complex, they have their own schedules for visitors.
The Hat
Located in a former palace of the nineteenth century, The Hat has a design consistent with its aims: that travelers and locals gather together in all the activities that take place there. Cultural, musical and artistic events where you can meet.
The Regional Archives of the Community of Madrid is part of the so-called "Complejo El Águila" [The Eagle complex] space that originally hosted the former brewery of the same name. Do not forget that although the two spaces, Archive and Library, are part of a single complex, they have their own schedules for visitors.
The Hat
Located in a former palace of the nineteenth century, The Hat has a design consistent with its aims: that travelers and locals gather together in all the activities that take place there. Cultural, musical and artistic events where you can meet.
The Sibarist
Both the greenhouse and the original building from 1870, the Student Residence Wunderhouse worth a visit. Separated only by a street, both are located within or in close connection with buildings of the early nineteenth century, which give them a unique aspect that well worths a visit.
Campus Madrid
Jump Studios in 2015 he carried out the restoration of the factory where Isaac Peral, inventor of the submarine, produced electric batteries. The building now hosts Campus Madrid, one out of the six Google spaces for entrepreneurs.
Residencia de Estudiantes
The four pavilions of the Residencia de Estudiantes, together with the gardens that surround them, form one of the most significant architectural sites in Madrid architecture of the first third of the twentieth century. They are located in 'Poplar Hill', as the place was called by the poet and Nobel Prize winner Juan Ramón Jiménez.
Co-working UTOPIC_US
The architect Izaskun Chinchilla modified the original conventional office, almost 1000 sqm spread over two floors, and turned it into a space of fairy tales, inspired by the two worldwide reference metropolis: Tokyo and New York.
Alejandro de la Sota Foundation
The great vocation of Alejandro de la Sota for the comunication of architecture and his concern that his work and thought could be easily accessible to students, researchers and architects, led to the creationof theFoundation that bears his name in 1997 with which his heirs aim to conserve and disseminate his work.
Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Filipinas
The Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Filipinas was built between 1967 and 1970 by Cecilio Sanchez-Robles Tarín and reformed by Manuel Mateo Sanz in 1989. The building stands out among the buildings of the Salamanca quarter by the obvious influence of the works of Le Corbusier, manifested in its monumentality, roundness, diversity and freedom of its plan and elevation.
Royal Tapestry Factory
The historic home of the Royal Tapestry Factory, designed by the Royal Architect José Segundo de Lema, was selected in the Plan of Industrial Heritage by the Institute of Spanish Historical Heritage and declared in 2006 Good of Cultural Interest in the Monument category, by the Community of Madrid.
Institut of Cultural Patrimony of Spain
In 1965 the General Direction of Fine Arts commissioned the architects Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró the project for a training and restoration center. The concrete-reinforced building, is inscribed in a circle of 40 meters of radius divided into 30 main segments that are split into two in the outer bay.
6 Recommendations for Open House Madrid 2015 by METALOCUS:
Do not forget to chek out their availability and schedule for the 2016 Edition!
Royal Theatre
The spaces housed by the Royal Theatre through its 65,000 square meters, turn this unique spot into a landmark building. Along with the innovative technical equipment, we can find the main spaces that as well as its great halls, located on the second floor of the building, reproduce the atmosphere of the opera in the nineteenth century and houses outstanding works of art inside.
Torre de Madrid Penthouse
Located in the emblematic Plaza de España in Madrid, the unique construction of the Tower of Madrid, designed by the Otamendi brothers, began to be built in 1954. At that time the building meant a revolution, due to its modernity and equipment. It now houses, among others, luxury homes like this beautiful signature penthouse.
Hydrografic Studies Center
The Hydrographic Studies Center is one of the most unique and charismatic buildings of the wide career of the architect Miguel Fisa. It represents one of the first attempts to propose reinforced concrete as the only building material as well as the first building of the capital to be finished in exposed concrete.
Maravillas School Gymnasium
It is the result of a very complicated assignment, which was to make an extension of the existing school on an irregular plot and where it was mandatory to solve the 12-meter gap existing between the Guadalquivir and Joaquín Costa streets, with a program consisting of a gym, a hockey court, bleachers, locker rooms, showers and cabins for monitors. The architect managed to do it all and to add three multifunctional classrooms, auditorium, conference room and playground as well.
Fernando Higueras Foundation
A unique space of 8 meters high, without walls or windows, limited by four concrete walls connecting the two floors, lit by four skylights form a large patio and the 5th of small landing on the staircase. It was was home for more than 30 years and 5 years ago, Lola Botia, acconditioned it as an architecture practice.
Giner de los Ríos Foundation
The rehabilitation and expansion of the headquarters of the Free Institution of Education reflects the innovative vision of architectural space, nature and landscape of Francisco Giner, its founder and one of the most significant pedagogues of contemporary Europe. The spatial organization of its historic headquarters from 1884 raised around the garden, chase the ideal of education of the Institution of staying the closest, to the last possible degree, of life outdoors.