Description of the project by Ruiz Barbarin Arquitectos
This aspect is the one that moved the property of the two buildings to raise the extension of its offices with the basement -1, low (with mezzanine) and first plants of the building Nº 6, requesting the prescriptive License of Works and Activity that protects the connecting works of the two buildings at ground level (and mezzanine level), as well as the modification of the façades of both buildings, in order to generate an overall image of the two existing buildings, since none is protected, and since the property seeks a representative image of the firm it represents: Banco Caminos.
Linking of the lower floors of the two buildings, it is possible to increase the area of the bank branch, located in that ground floor, which would have its main access through the facade of No. 8, current access to the Bank. At the same time, a set of six houses was promoted, which are developed from the second to seventh floors of the building, that is, each of them would occupy a floor of the current building, due to the small size of the building (180m² built by housing) and the typology of housing; high-quality housing.
The main goal of the intervention in the building No. 6 of Almagro street, although it is not very old (year 1964), is to renovate the building for a new period of useful life, to make it useful as an office building on lower floors and residential in upper floors, maintaining its original volumetry and character but adapting it to the functional needs of the new users, providing them with the services and conditions of safety and health that allows the perfect livability of it.
The works presented in this document are aimed to respond to the requirements stablished, as well as the recovery for an optimal use and value of an emblematic building within the urban area in which it is located.
The global intervention in each functional unit that is raised can be understood subdivided into two parts:
- Spatial homogenization within each functional area, adapting them to the new use, seeking the intercommunication between all the parts of the building, looking for a better response, both functional, in the normal development of the activity, and safety in case of emergencies. It also seeks, of course, a higher architectural quality of the projected spaces, work spaces more friendly to employees and more pleasing to sporadic users, in the case of offices.
- Conditioning the building to achieve the current comfort requirements as well as new regulatory requirements regarding safety and health.
Main façade joint of buildings Nº 6 and Nº 8 of Almagro street
One of the premises, by property’s requirement, when undertaking the rehabilitation of building No. 6, was the creation of a single facade that would incorporate the two old facades of the original buildings (Nos. 6 and 8) .
Originally, the two buildings had similar cornice and coronation heights, as well as similar floors levels and identical reguards to the exterior facade, so the approach of a single skin that collects both buildings should not be problematic, concerning the voids of its facade and heights.
With the new facade design for the two buildings, the new proposal is intended to dialogue with the current environment of the building, that are very different. The composition design proposed for this new facade tries to create a reinterpretation of a classic facade of Madrid, with balconies, but playing with the flaring of the new stone voids and the double scales of these same voids in its upper part. Two large canopies frame perimetrally the whole facade in its upper floors. The ground floor, stone, tectonic, is fixed to the ground in an attempt to anchor itself to reality.
