Open House Madrid is an architecture and city festival that takes place one weekend a year in more than 40 cities around the world. For two days, the doors of dozens of public buildings, work spaces, residences, studios of artists and architects that can not be visited are opened.
There are 125 buildings to visit (you can see the complete map list at the end of the article) that the hardest part is going to be to have the time to visit all of them and also decide which ones to visit. As a Media Partner, at METALOCUS we are aware of this, so we have already made the work easier by selecting 24 of our favorite buildings of this edition. Among the recommendations included this year are the Railway Museum - former Station of Delights, the UPM Higher Technical School of Mining and Energy Engineers, the Slaughterhouse Casa del Lector, the new headquarters of Save the Children and the car wash Burbucar among others. All these places will open their doors during the 29th and 30th of September. We hope you find this information easier!
In addition, the fourth edition of the Open House Madrid festival pays tribute to Fernando Higueras this year and does so through an exhibition called "The voices of Fernando Higueras" about his drawings and watercolors - some unpublished works so far.
24 Recommendations Open House Madrid 2018 by METALOCUS:
There are 125 buildings to visit (you can see the complete map list at the end of the article) that the hardest part is going to be to have the time to visit all of them and also decide which ones to visit. As a Media Partner, at METALOCUS we are aware of this, so we have already made the work easier by selecting 24 of our favorite buildings of this edition. Among the recommendations included this year are the Railway Museum - former Station of Delights, the UPM Higher Technical School of Mining and Energy Engineers, the Slaughterhouse Casa del Lector, the new headquarters of Save the Children and the car wash Burbucar among others. All these places will open their doors during the 29th and 30th of September. We hope you find this information easier!
In addition, the fourth edition of the Open House Madrid festival pays tribute to Fernando Higueras this year and does so through an exhibition called "The voices of Fernando Higueras" about his drawings and watercolors - some unpublished works so far.
24 Recommendations Open House Madrid 2018 by METALOCUS:
1.- Railway Museum
Delicias Station was the final point of the road linking Madrid and Ciudad Real. Open to the public in 1880, it did not have a definitive owner until it was made with it. The Company of the Ferrocarriles de Madrid to Cáceres and Portugal. The station gave three fundamental services: travelers, goods and traction. At the present time the Traveler Buildings is the Railway Museum of Madrid.
2.- Higher Technical School of Mining and Energy Engineers
The Higher Technical School of Mining and Energy Engineers (ETSIME) is a teaching center of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, which teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The distribution of the ETSIME is diversified: it consists of four buildings and a foundation.
Delicias Station was the final point of the road linking Madrid and Ciudad Real. Open to the public in 1880, it did not have a definitive owner until it was made with it. The Company of the Ferrocarriles de Madrid to Cáceres and Portugal. The station gave three fundamental services: travelers, goods and traction. At the present time the Traveler Buildings is the Railway Museum of Madrid.
2.- Higher Technical School of Mining and Energy Engineers
The Higher Technical School of Mining and Energy Engineers (ETSIME) is a teaching center of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, which teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The distribution of the ETSIME is diversified: it consists of four buildings and a foundation.
3.- Casa del Lector
The Old Slaughterhouse of Madrid has been transformed into a Creation Center
Contemporary reference for Madrid, after the call for several architectural competitions that have allowed to recover its 148,300 m 2, destinándolos to creative processes, participatory artistic training and dialogue between the arts. The Casa del Lector project is the result of a restricted contest, held in 2006, in which Ensamble Studio won the first prize. The object of the contest was a project of reform of the ships 13, 14, 17b and 17c of the Old Slaughterhouse.
4.- SAVE THE CHILDREN
The Save the Children Foundation rehabilitates and expands its headquarters in the neighborhood of San Diego, Vallecas in Madrid, Spain, in order to respond to the program of a center for child care. The project designed by elii for the rehabilitation and expansion of the NGO's headquarters, is answered by the addition of a new body that hangs over the pre-existence, giving rise to a new nucleus of communications and services at the same time that it creates a new facade for the foundation.
5.- Burbucar car wash
Burbucar is a car wash located on the street Costa Rica in Madrid. It is an established business that uses clean and innovative processes, and seeks to visualize their philosophy through a new image. The car wash designed by Lina Toro occupies the ground floor of a residential building of 7 floors in a tube 70m long and 12 wide. Resting on a bed of 10cm neoprene absorbing vibrations of the machine car wash. Recycles 80% of water used in a room with 6 specific purification tanks. In winter, humidity is above 80% and the wind chill is 0 degrees. It wash an average of 80 cars per day on an uninterrupted schedule of 12 hours from Monday to Saturday.
6.- Desert City
Desert City is a biotechnology greenhouse of xerophytic plants, is a multifunctional center of over 16,000 m², which houses the experimental botanical garden of cacti and other xerophytic species of more than 5.000 m², biotechnology greenhouse specializing in xerophilism, which has I + D, a laboratory and terraces-lookout, among other elements. The project, Desert City, developed by GarcíaGermán Arquitectos is located on 25 km of the A-1 motorway and has developed as if it were an oasis, in a field limited by this route and the foothills of the Regional Park of the Cuenca Alta del Manzanares.
7.- ABC Museum
This new cultural space is located at number 29 – 31 in Amaniel street (in the centre of Madrid, next to the Convent of the Comendadoras). The building has been reformed by the architects Aranguren & Gallegos. Its 3,500 square metres are divided into six floors which have two exhibition rooms, activity areas, archives, restoration workshops, a café… This space was created with the aim of becoming a centre of reference in Europe for drawing and illustration. A space that offers a wide variety of activities from workshops to concerts, as well as lectures or training courses related to these subjects.
8.- Castelar Building
Located in Emilio Castelar square, the Castelar building (1986) was designed by architects Rafael de La-Hoz and Gerardo Olivares. Today, it is owned by Mutua Madrileña and is home to Pérez-Llorca. Its rehabilitation has been carried out recently by the author's son Rafael de La-Hoz, who defines the building as 'a structural challenge in concrete and stone'.
9.- La Casa Encendida
La Casa Encendida is a space that "exceeded" the definition of cultural center, creating its "own identity" in which a range of activities focused on education, solidarity, environment and culture are offered, and encouraging the creation, dissemination, understanding and citizen participation.
Desert City is a biotechnology greenhouse of xerophytic plants, is a multifunctional center of over 16,000 m², which houses the experimental botanical garden of cacti and other xerophytic species of more than 5.000 m², biotechnology greenhouse specializing in xerophilism, which has I + D, a laboratory and terraces-lookout, among other elements. The project, Desert City, developed by GarcíaGermán Arquitectos is located on 25 km of the A-1 motorway and has developed as if it were an oasis, in a field limited by this route and the foothills of the Regional Park of the Cuenca Alta del Manzanares.
7.- ABC Museum
This new cultural space is located at number 29 – 31 in Amaniel street (in the centre of Madrid, next to the Convent of the Comendadoras). The building has been reformed by the architects Aranguren & Gallegos. Its 3,500 square metres are divided into six floors which have two exhibition rooms, activity areas, archives, restoration workshops, a café… This space was created with the aim of becoming a centre of reference in Europe for drawing and illustration. A space that offers a wide variety of activities from workshops to concerts, as well as lectures or training courses related to these subjects.
8.- Castelar Building
Located in Emilio Castelar square, the Castelar building (1986) was designed by architects Rafael de La-Hoz and Gerardo Olivares. Today, it is owned by Mutua Madrileña and is home to Pérez-Llorca. Its rehabilitation has been carried out recently by the author's son Rafael de La-Hoz, who defines the building as 'a structural challenge in concrete and stone'.
9.- La Casa Encendida
La Casa Encendida is a space that "exceeded" the definition of cultural center, creating its "own identity" in which a range of activities focused on education, solidarity, environment and culture are offered, and encouraging the creation, dissemination, understanding and citizen participation.
10.- 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.
11.- 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.
12.- 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.
13.- 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.
14.- 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.
15.- 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.
16.- 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.
17.- 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.
18.- 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.
19.- 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.
20.- 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.
21.- 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.
22.- 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.
23.- 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.
24.- 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.
