The project has staggered its morphology to hybridize with the existing party walls of the adjoining buildings. In addition to adapting to the volumetry of the environment, the building is fragmented into two bodies that intertwine.
The volume is also divided horizontally into two pieces, one aligned to the façade treated with ocher colours and the other recessed and staggered with a neutral grey colour that follows a more Cartesian geometry.
From that exterior marked by the pillars and wrought iron lines, one accesses the interior of the block in which a special environment full of vegetation has been sought, with good views and natural lighting, and where the width of the patio has been increased, reducing the plot depth.
Housing building by Olalquiaga Arquitectos. Photograph by Jesús Granada.
Housing building by Olalquiaga Arquitectos. Photograph by Jesús Granada.
Description of project by Olalquiaga Arquitectos
Regenerating Madrid Center. Connecting and energizing the community
It is uncommon to have the opportunity to intervene in such an emblematic enclave of the historic centre of Madrid. It entails a responsibility in which the assignment goes beyond adequately resolving a program and complying with urban planning regulations. The work presented here reforms and rehabilitates a block, improving its morphology, spatiality and relationship with the environment. It replaces the intervention of another industrial building already obsolete due to its structure and typology. It was not possible to rehabilitate or reuse the existing construction due to, firstly, an industrial-scale structure, incompatible with residential use, and without sufficient underground construction to meet the parking provision requirements mandated by the regulations. It was also unfeasible due to the negative impacts that affected both a deteriorated block courtyard without green areas and the life and activity of the neighbourhood. The previous building amounted to a physical and symbolic wall for the community.
From the beginning, we understood this was an act of urban regeneration to connect architecture and the city, to activate the life of the private (building) and the public (street-neighbourhood). The reform and rehabilitation of a front and two sides of the block in one of the historic enclaves of the city of Madrid, between the Parque del Oeste and the Royal Palace, was imperative.
To gently integrate the significant volume of the building into the environment, it is progressively staggered to align the dividing walls with the adjoining buildings. To adapt to the volumetry of the environment, the building is fragmented into two main bodies that interlock. A basement body that coincides with the official alignment and is staggered to adjust to the heights of the buildings on the corner of Arriaza and Estanislao Figueras streets, and a second elevated body, like a 4-storey attic, which gradually recedes from the first to minimize its visual impact from the street and which in turn adapts to the different heights of the party walls of the adjoining buildings.
Inside the block, a special atmosphere full of vegetation is sought with a generous space that allows views, lighting and natural ventilation. A decrease from the permitted plot depth allows for an increase in the width of the patio up to twice the minimum area required by regulations. This patio also serves as a backdrop of light and nature to the ground floor arcade where the entrance is located on the central axis of Calle Irún. The decision was made not to colonize the ground floor with commercial or living space, turning it into a large common arcaded floor open to the street.
