The lecture coincides with the Architecture Week and the award of the first prize 2012 by the College of Architects of Madrid (COAM) to Jerónimo Junquera, whose study won the competition in 2004 for rehabilitation, next Thursday, at 19.00, headquarters in COAM. Jerónimo Junquera said yesterday as always is visited by foreigners (japanese, visits from the Polytechnic of Milan, Amsterdam ...) and yet the Spanish know little about this great work by architects Charles Arniches, Martin Dominguez and engineer Eduardo Torroja.
The enclosure Race Zarzuela Hippodrome is one of the best works of Spanish architecture of the first third of the twentieth century, and the structure of the rostrum with its stunning roof canopies, one of the great achievements of the century worldwide.
Following is a brief chronology of building provided by the architects Junquera:
- 1934, Arniches, Dominguez and Torroja, won the competition for the new Madrid Hippodrome. THERE ARE DRAWINGS.
- 1936 Civil War. The works are interrupted, the concrete structures are virtually finished.
- 1939 End of the War. Architects are purged, disappears all documentation (except the structures).
- 1941 is ending works and opens the Hippodrome with minimal facilities would continue refined and expanded. Races were held until 1996, and in 1997 the facilities were closed.
- 2003 The racecourse is closed, abandoned, unused and converted into a "drink bar"
- 2004 Junquera Architects wins contest.
- 2006 Adoption of the rehabilitation project.
- 2008 Start of the restoration works, especially the canopies of the rostrum.
In the recovery process with the collaboration of National Heritage (Pedro Moleón) and the IPHE, with whom they established a catalog cards of the different elements of the set: what had to be demolished, what was necessary to restore and those on that there will be a process of recovery. A document that was completed with the drafting of a master plan for the entire area.
Started the restoration of the canopies, "it went doing, on the venue, prospecting of constructive works. They were works of research to discover and analyze the original values and construction systems, distorted and lost with extensions and modifications executed on site. This showed the major structural damages that needed repairing and consolidation works."
The works have removed and cleaned from building, "adhesions that had undermined" the rostrums were restored (emblem of hippodrome) and ensilladeros have been preserved in the original position, the circulations are clarified and there is a new underground building.
"The horse on one side and the viewer on the other, where the horse never intersects with the viewer, but he is always see the horse," said Jerónimo Junquera yesterday. That is one of the racetracks "that work best in the world", taken by Dominique Perrault, who is currently the architect selected to remodel the Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, as a reference model, using the same the design of the Zarzuela.
Provision is also expanding a convention center in the north courtyard underground to avoid affecting the prospects of the buildings. The works currently have not been completed due to lack of budget.
Congratulations to Jerónimo Junquera for the prize and the painstaking restoration process. Hat tip and Congratulations!
