The new Center for the elderly is located in one of the neighborhoods with the gratest presence of this population group in the City of Madrid. The resulting building will favor the development of their social well-being by guaranteeing caring services and, above all, providing meeting and gathering places.
The project intervenes in the unused wing of a building built at the beginning of the 20th century as a residence for orphaned children.
Taking advantage of the empty space available in the inner block courtyard, the proposal spreads in part of this void completing the block volume in a stretch connection with the existing construction while reserving outdoor spaces such as petanque, orchard and terraces so demanded in these dense neighborhoods.
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The wide variety of uses and services (cafeteria, gym, reading rooms, auditorium, hairdresser, chiropody, multipurpose rooms, workshops, etc.) is distributed indistinctly in both buildings, creating a fluid communication of users between the old part and the new one.
Regarding the materials election, existing elements like bricks or metal trusses are left visible in the old part to accentuate its memory. Combining with them, in the new building, warm and comfortable materials are proposed.
The location of the building, next to the access of the new square to be located inside the residential block, makes it the new entrance to this open space.
The proposal tries to lead the passers-by to the new public space thanks to the permeability of the ground floor and the singularity of its front to the upper street, thus distinguishing itself from the annexed buildings and announcing access to the new square.
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The compactness that characterizes the floor plant makes it possible to organize two dwellings per level oriented opposite the street and the park. Both types, while meeting the dimensional restrictions of this type of housing, benefit from a privileged corner position with two orientations and large windows that open the space to the exterior views.
The extraordinary location on Almirante street, found in the elegant Justice district of Madrid, characterizes this early 20th century building.
The typology of dwelling with front of balconies towards the street and long depth part, illuminated through patios, was in its days very used in houses of all type in the city. When they reach larger dimensions, long corridor routes are created in order to communicate both ends of the building.
Controlling and reducing the routes inside the house were, from the very beginning, a fundamental part of the proposal; as a result, rooms are connected each other through alternative circulations without considering the corridor, thus breaking its linearity.
The living rooms, all interconnected and next to the access, are organized facing the street, while the bedrooms are located around the courtyards.
The children’s bedroom becomes a large room placed in the center of the house, the transition area between the public and private parts thanks to the shelf that makes them independent.
Neutral materials and finishes combine with punctual touches of color leaving the prominence to the original elements of the house, such as pavements, radiators and plaster mouldings.
The different pieces of furniture, belonging to previous homes and family heirlooms, find their place completing the intervention and showcasing their value.
The Hubr company decided to build their first Spanish hall of residence in the city of Madrid.
In contrast to the typical50s style building and the well-mannered Madrid neighborhood of Salamanca where it is located, the proposal tries to generate a contemporary atmosphere with the idea of connecting with its young residents.
Thus, continuous pavements, walls and color signage together with exposed facilities in public spaces lead to achieve the purpose. In contrast, the rooms present more conservative materials such as wooden floors, ceramic tiles or plasterboard ceilings.
The brick facade to the street, as a protected heritage, was to be fully respected preserving its image and, consequently, reinforce the contrast with the new actuations inside the building.
The intervention in the existing patio allows the light to reach all the rooms at the same time it creates a changing image throughout the successive floors thanks to its own geometry and the variation of materials applied.
The building also benefits from distant views over the emblematic Colegio El Pilar as well as from direct sunlightduring the whole day.
The proposal, joyful and optimistic, is intended to make possible the coexistence of the conservative character of the building and the contrasting youth of the new resident students.
The first visit we made to the house had a strong impact on us; a dense vegetation was visible from the street making the inside quite promising. Once in the plot, three pavillions, discovered one after the other, formed the house and were built at different time following the family growth.
Since the very beginning, it seemed to us that there was a strong connection between the client, whom we met a little before, and the house they had just acquired. Therefore, our proposal fundamentally aimed to reinforce this bound and protect the special character that, in our opinion, they shared.
The result is an heterogeneous intervention, with various actions focused in different areas, sometimes incorporated during the construction works, participating in some way in the continuous evolution of the house from its first built pavillion.
The core of the house is located in the central pavillion, with access to the front garden and backyard. Surrounding it, there are two smaller pavillions dedicated to the music studio and office room, which are work spaces for both parents.
The bedrooms, located on the top floor of different pavillions, are communicated through a bridge providing fun to the routes through the house; similarly, a hidden staircase connects the children bedroom directly to the music room found two floors below them.
The exterior spaces covered with pieces of clay end up tying the house to the ground in the most conceptual sense.
It is, thus, a very lively house both inside and outside its pavillions; a house that is intensely familiar in its central core and, at the same time, enormously social; a house where it is possible to find someone as well as to isolate oneself in any of its different corners.
The work arises due to the necessary renovation of an 80s apartment for the exclusive use of two elderly people, who were surprised by his son, almost as a gift, with the full renovation of the place in order to adapt it to their current needs.
Located on the eighth floor of a tower in the Madrid neighbourhood of Moratalaz, the apartment has two full fronts open to the city.
With the premise of facilitating the use of the dwelling in every project decision, a central nucleus was proposed organizing the circulations around it while giving access to the different rooms. These circulation spaces around it are illuminated through different mechanisms creating a close relationship with the exterior.
The master bedroom is located next to the living room and visually connected with it while both the guest bedroom and the one for the person in charge of the house works maintain a certain independence and privacy with respect to the former spaces.
It is, therefore, an intended simple, bright and open to the city proposal with the aim of improving the living conditions of this elderly married couple who are expected to spend much of their daily life at home.
The transformation of a conventional loft into a suitable space for life, work and the daily hobbies of a musician and filmmaker underlies this proposal. The acoustic insulation necessary for the space gives this area a quiet and introverted character that dominates the proposal.
The access level, more open and flexible, is organized around certain elements such as the kitchen, toilet, staircase and a large storage area, all located on the perimeter. A solid soundproof door gives access to the bedroom floor above that shares space with the piano, with views over the city.
Large wooden panels cover the floor and partially the walls. The staircase that ascends to the bedroom is carpeted, acting as an acoustic conditioner.
Both materials, commonly used in the boxes of musical instruments, help to generate the intimate work space that was pursued.
The Wastewater Treatment Plant of Villapérez, northeast of Oviedo city, occupies a huge extension of about 21 hectares. Carried out at the beginning of the ’90s, it is composed of several buildings made of yellow concrete block with red metal sheet gable roof paying little attention to the environment where they are located.
The commission literally consists of ‘giving a new face’ to the buildings, with such a demanding budget constraint, that the only way to meet the requirements was to paint the buildings without any other further intervention.
The applied colors are diluted in the usually leaden sky of the environment. By using them in adjacent faces of each building, the anodyne and large volume is intended to break and the buildings are related to each other. The range of colors is complemented by more intense tones that allows to identify the singular elements of use such as accesses, connections, etc.
All this is completed with a visible graphic and signage that helps to identify each building from the great distances that separate them.
Due to the growth of population, three new buildings would be built mandatorily with prefabricated concrete at the same time their location and volume cannot be altered. Once again, our mission focuses on the study of envelopes, proposing sizes and shades of the prefabricated elements that help integrate them with the environment.
The metal sheet baseboard grouping the accesses are painted in intense yellow, thus relating to the intense colors of the existing painted buildings.
