Spanish and Portuguese contemporary architecture tour Summer 2017: from July 23th to August 6th
DIRECTOR Luis Rojo de Castro graduated from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid in 1987, were he has been teaching design since 1992. He is currently Ph D Professor at the Department of Architecture , teaching design studios at the undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as Labs and Workshops at the Master for Advanced Architecture program. He is currently the Coordinator of the Ph D Program at the Architecture Department of the School of Architecture of Madrid. He obtained a Masters degree at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University , in 1989, and was Visiting Professor of Architecture at the GSD on regular basis between 1994 and 1998, and again in 2001, 2006 and 2011. Since 1999 he has been a regular Visiting Professor of History and Architecture Theory at the Escuela de Arquitectura de Navarra. Rojo obtained a Ph_D in Architecture from the Architecture Department at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, with a dissertation on the contaminations of Le Corbusier’s discourse with the instruments of Surrealism during the 1920’s. As a result of his academic and research practice, his writings on contemporary architecture have been published in A+U, El Croquis, Cassabella, Tectónica, Revista Arquitectura, CIRCO, etc. 1
COORDINATOR Luz Carruthers holds a Master in Advanced Architectural Design (2016) from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain, where she is starting her PhD studies on infrastructural architecture. She is an architect (2012) from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, graduated with honors. She obtained several scholarships from the University of Buenos Aires, the Argentine National University Council and the Ministry of Education of Spain. She is teaching assistant of architectural design at the studio led by Emilio Tuñón at ETSAM since 2015. Between 2012 and 2014, she was assistant professor in architectural design and researcher at the Study Center of Inclusive Habitat at the University of Buenos Aires. She has been invited lecturer at Università di Roma Sapienza, Italy, and Istituto Europeo di Design of Madrid. She has worked on housing and public buildings at significant architecture offices in Argentina and Spain, such as Dieguez Fridman or Teresa Sapey Studio. Currently, she works as an architect at ROJO FERNANDEZ-SHAW architects in Madrid. ARCHITECTURE GUIDES Damián Plouganou is a Phd student at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid since 2016, he obtained a Master in Architecture (2012) from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, with Academic Excellence Award (2013) and he is an architect (2009) from Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina. His master thesis, “El orden de lo imprevisible” obtained the Best Magister Thesis Award (2013), from PUC of Chile, and the Best Research Work Award (2014) from the IX Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism. He works as architect since 2010, combining his own practice with collaborations in different offices, in Argentina (Estudio Aire), Chile (Panorama Arquitectos) and Spain (KAW). He has worked in different research projects, in Universidad de Rosario, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where he is part of the reseach group NuTAC. He has been teaching in Argentina and Chile, in the universities mentioned before. Fábio Peixoto holds a Master in Architecture (2013) from the University of Beira Interior, Portugal. In 2012, he obtained an ERASMUS scholarship with which he was an exchange student at VIA University College, Denmark. He has worked in several architecture offices in Portugal, such as ANARCHlab Arquitectos (Porto) and Barbosa & Gumarães Arquitectos (Matoshinos). 2
SCHEDULE
PEKIN > BARCELONA
July 23rd
BARCELONA July 24th BARCELONA July 25th GIRONA July 26th BARCELONA > ZARAGOZA > BILBAO
July 27th
BILBAO July 28th BILBAO > MADRID
July 29th
MADRID July30th MADRID July 31th MADRID > MÉRIDA > LISBOA
August 1st
LISBOA August 2nd LISBOA > PORTO
August 3rd
PORTO August 4th PORTO August 5th PORTO > PEKIN August 6th 3
CASA MILÀ (LA PEDRERA)
#1
Architect: ANTONI GAUDÍ Year: 1906-10 Casa Milà, popularly known as ‘La Pedrera’ (the stone quarry), an ironic allusion to the resemblance of its façade to an open quarry, was constructed between 1906 and 1912 by Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926). For its uniqueness, artistic and heritage value have received major recognition and in 1984 was inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List, for its exceptional universal value. Nowadays it is the headquarters of Catalunya-La Pedrera Foundation and houses a cultural centre that is a reference point in Barcelona for the range of activities it organises and the different spaces for exhibitions and other public uses it contains. Casa Milà today is a beacon shining with creation and knowledge, a great container full of content, which has a crucial role to play in the transformation of society and commitment to the people.
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BASILICA DE LA SAGRADA FAMILIA
#2
Architect: ANTONI GAUDÍ Year: 1883Gaudí’s conception of the Sagrada Familia was based on the traditions of Gothic and Byzantine cathedrals.The starting point for the Sagrada Familia was Gothic architecture, which Gaudí modified and improved on to offer a new architecture which, due to its originality, makes this temple unique. The Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia is a church with a central nave flanked by four aisles, and transepts with a central nave flanked by two aisles, forming a Latin cross. The top of the cross is closed by the semi-circular apse. The basilica also has three monumental facades, each one representing one of the three crucial events of Christ’s existence: his birth; his Passion, Death and Resurrection; and his present and future Glory. He achieved a symbiosis between form and Christian iconography, with a personal architecture generated via new but thoroughly logical structures, forms and geometries inspired by nature, with light and colour also playing a central role. Gaudí planned for the light inside the Sagrada Familia to be harmonious and to accentuate the plasticity of the nave, but above all to be conducive to introspection. 5
SANTA CATERINA MARKET HALL
#3
Architect: ENRIC MIRALLES and BENEDETTA TAGLIABUE Year: 2005 The refurbishment of Barcelona’s first covered food market by the architectural practice of Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue was completed in 2005. The old Santa Caterina food market revealed a gleaming, undulating and brightly coloured roof designed to be seen from the air. The roof is attached to the building by a wooden structure, and a vast mosaic of coloured ceramic pieces, representing fruit and vegetables, boldly breaks with the traditional look of a market. The market has always been characterised by a desire to innovate. Santa Caterina Market was built in 1845 to provide the neighbourhood’s blue-collar community with foodstuffs. The spacious, modern market building was constructed on the former site of the Convent of Santa Caterina, from which it takes its name. During the post-Civil War period, Santa Caterina became the main food supplier to the towns on the outskirts of Barcelona. Today, the market is still worth a visit: the modern exterior ushers us into a traditional market with food stalls and restaurants which serve outstanding-quality produce. 6
IGUALADA CEMETERY
#4
Architect: ENRIC MIRALLES and CARME PINÓS Year: 1994 As part of a competition to replace an older cemetery, Enric Miralles and Carme Pinos envisioned a new type of cemetery that began to consider those that were laid to rest, as well as the families that still remained. After 10 years of construction, the Igualada Cemetery, outside of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, was completed in 1994 as a place of reflection and memories. The Igualada Cemetery is a project that challenges the traditional notions of what makes a cemetery. Miralles and Pinos conceptualized the poetic ideas of a cemetery for the visitors to begin to understand and accept the cycle of life as a link between the past, present, and future. It’s understood by the architects to be a “city of the dead” where the dead and the living are brought closer together in spirit. As much as the Igualada Cemetery is a place for those to be laid to rest, it is a place for those to come and reflect in the solitude and serenity of the Catalonian landscape.
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JOAN MIRÓ FOUNDATION
#5
Architect: JOSEP LLUIS SERT Year: 1975 The museum was founded in 1975 still during the life of Joan Miró. There should be a large part of the works of the artist and exhibit space for works of innovative artists of the 20th Century. Joan Miró was interested in the Museum of the foundation as a place of inspiration and exploration of art in Barcelona. As an architect, Joan Miró engaged a friend of his: Lluis Sert. Sert had built the famous Spanish Pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in which the painting “Guernica” by Picasso had been issued. He built the Fundació in a Mediterranean style, and laid emphasis on natural light from the sun in the exhibition rooms. Twice, the Fundació structurally must be expanded to make room for the works Miró create. The fully white building shows the visitors of the exhibition besides on the work of Miró also changing exhibitions of modern artists.
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HOUSING IN LA BARCELONETA
#6
Architect: JOSÉ ANTONIO CODERCH Year: 1952 The sensation of labyrinthine complexity in observing the plant, is equivalent to the spatial wealth in visiting the interior of the building. The oblique visions that sweep the main diagonals of the dwelling find their physical support in the elements of division that accompany, when necessary, the pavement weave. The tripartite composition of the facade, crowned by a marquee, does not at any time renounce the character of modernity that gives it traditional materials of the country such as glazed ceramics and the booklet blind, redesigned in its version of wide blade on metal base and Applied for the first time in this project.
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SANT ANTONI LIBRARY AND SENIOR’S CENTRE
#7
Architect: RCR ARQUITECTES Year: 2007 The original design competition proposed a relatively generic administrative office. Once the spatial and social opportunities of RCR’s winning composition were understood, however, the client agreed that a public amenity would be far better suited. Thus the library now occupies the gateway building, setting up complementary social dynamics with the senior citizens’ centre, which was part of the initial proposal, at the rear of the courtyard. Before remodelling began, this block was typical of many in the city: inaccessible to the public and occupied by low-rise light industrial workshops, sheds and occasional chimneys. In her analysis, presented to the Mies van der Rohe Award jury in a public lecture (the project was one of five shortlisted schemes, AR June 2009), practice co-founder Carme Pigem named aspects of the city that had failed to come to fruition. In both plan and section, the black form negotiates itself into a very settled state, with a five-storey block sitting within the existing vertical gap and double-height/single-storey wing forming a cranked armature that steps in and around the west and north boundaries. 10
LA LIRA THEATER PUBLIC OPEN SPACE
#8
Architect: RCR ARQUITECTES Year: 2011 The demolition of La Lira Theater left an urban void in the historic district of Ripoll, a town in the province of Girona, overlooking the Ter River. With recollections of the scale and spirit of the former theater, and also understanding the importance of town squares, the architects have created a unique covered square, suitable for many types of activities and an outdoor space to be enjoyed informally by residents. Beneath this, there is an underground multi-purpose room. The new Lira structure frames the view across the river toward the newer part of the town and the mountains beyond. When approaching by the new weathering steel footbridge, also designed by RCR, across the river, it forms a gateway to the old part of town. Weathering steel, the predominant material used throughout, evokes the metallurgical past of Ripoll. The covered square, where a theater once stood, has become an accessible urban stage and meeting place, thanks to the 40-meter footbridge that crosses the river. 11
TOSSOLS BASIL ATHLETICS STADIUM
#9
Architect: RCR ARQUITECTES Year: 2000 The athletics track presents the act of running in the middle of nature, in the spirit of the first Olympic Games in Greece. The area called Tossols-Basil, which is designated for leisure activities, is located at the edge of both a city and a natural park along a river. When contemplating adding sports facilities here, the architects faced a dilemma of either clearing large amounts of slow-growing oak trees or succumbing to environmentalists who wanted no change at all. The solution was to site the athletic track in a forest clearing, previously used for cultivation. Nature and sport are united and runners appear and disappear as they make their way around the track. The project highlights the beauty of the landscape and preserves the vegetation as a filter that changes with the seasons. The seating for observing the athletes is developed as small terraces or embankments between the clearings, often using the natural topography. The slender lighting towers become points of reference in the landscape. 12
BELL LLOC WINERY
#10
Architect: RCR ARQUITECTES Year: 2007 It is a “promenade� to the underground world of wine from a road that runs along the forest and links buildings. Its interior offers rest, penumbra, weight of the earth. There is also air and rain in the tasting room and the surprise of a small auditorium. It is not a single site but a promenade for discovering different spaces whose undulating route, in plan and section, becomes their dimension. To build a warehouse for the private production and consumption of wine in a unique setting, the start of a valley at the foot of the mountain of a protected space, is the engine of the project. In this environment there are constructions of various kinds, including a chapel, where the slope begins. In the road that links them all is a covered stretch, sunken, where the dependencies of the winery hang, buried under the vines, like a comb. The inertia of this excavated environment is used to avoid energy consumption in its environmental qualities, whose singular perception is the result of its spatial geometry and materials, steel and stones, that surround you in an underground world, cool, isolated, where you can feel and taste a different. 13
BRIDGE PAVILION (EXPO ZARAGOZA 2008)
#11
Architect: ZAHA HADID Year: 2008 The Bridge Pavilion (Spanish: Pabellón Puente) is a building designed by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid that was constructed for the Expo 2008 in Zaragoza (Spain) as one of its main landmarks. It is an innovative 280-metre-long (919 ft) covered bridge that imitates a gladiola over the river Ebro, connecting the neighbourhood of La Almozara (es) with the exposition site, and thus becoming its main entrance. The new bridge is, at the same time, a multi-level exhibition area; 10,000 visitors per hour were expected to frequent the Pavilion during world exhibition. Hadid chose fibre glass reinforced concrete from Austrian company Rieder to envelope the bridge: she covered the outer skin of the building with 29,000 triangles of fibreC in different shades of grey. During the Expo 2008, the Bridge Pavilion hosted an exposition called Water – a unique resource, designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates. When the Expo was over, the building was purchased by the local savings bank Ibercaja to use it as a site for expositions. 14
ARAGON AUDITORIUM (EXPO ZARAGOZA 2008)
#12
Architect: NIETO SOBEJANO Year: 2008 The Auditorium and Convention Centre in Expo 2008 located in Zaragoza, Spain was designed by architects Nieto Sobejano. A fractional and varied profile – ascending and descending – the building’s exterior expressed the different spaces housed in its interior and introduced a large amount of natural light into the exhibition areas. Three main blocks house an auditorium, a multi-purpose pavilion, and modular halls will be connected to each other via a large common vestibule which links the different areas. At first glance it seems hard to assign a key role to an architectural element that is isolated from a project, and one generally accepts that, if there is a protagonist, it must be related to its global conception, not to partial aspects. But a close reading of a work like the Congress Center of Aragón, aside from helping to understand it as a complex whose internal structure is perceived through the spatial connections and resonances among the pieces that form it, also allows acknowledging the meaning that one single principle can acquire through the mechanism of the series. 15
DEUSTO LIBRARY
#13
Architect: RAFAEL MONEO Year: 2008 The University of Deusto houses the building of a New Library, designed by architect Rafael Moneo, completed in the 2007-2008 academic year. It is an original building, strategically located and integrated into the Abandoibarra area, facing the Guggenheim Museum. The new Library is planned as a Resource Centre for Learning and Research, aimed at continuing education and at the university and cultural community; a university library which, in keeping with its history, will look towards the future providing access to sources of information most sought after, with a collection open to lecturers and researchers from around the world, as well as to institutions and companies.
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GUGGENHEIM BILBAO MUSEUM
#14
Architect: FRANK GEHRY Year: 1993/97 THE Guggenheim Museum Bilbao building represents a magnificent example of the most groundbreaking 20th-century architecture. With 24,000 m2, of which 11,000 are dedicated to exhibition space, the Museum represents an architectural landmark of audacious configuration, providing a seductive backdrop for the art exhibited in it. Altogether, Gehry’s design creates a spectacular sculpture-like structure, perfectly integrated within Bilbao’s urban pattern and its surrounding area. Due to the mathematical complexity of Gehry’s design, he decided to work with an advanced software initially conceived for the aerospace industry, CATIA, to faithfully translate his concept to the structure and to help construction. For the outer skin of the building, the architect chose titanium after ruling out other materials and seeing the behavior of a titanium sample pinned outside his office. The finish of the approximately 33,000 extremely thin titanium sheets provides a rough and organic effect, adding to the material’s color changes depending on the weather and light conditions. 17
LASESARRE FOOTBALL STADIUM
#15
Architect: NO.MAD architects Year: 2003 Our goal is to answer the question, “What will the space be like when restored to its original quality of a sport-in-nature stadium, with the increasing religious quality of its skillful celebrants and obedient acolytes?� It is an almost-rectangular site envisaged by an autistic planning scheme without any kind of urban excitement, an excitement needed by a de-industrialized city in times of low self-esteem. The answer is a system of visual/emotional patterns of behavior reflected in the shape of the building accommodating them. On the one hand, we need to recover a continuous green space on which to play and sit surrounded by a grass surface that blurs the boundaries between players and spectators. On the other, the multiplicity of ways of looking at height and distance, as well as the distribution of groups of spectators and their control, configure different tiers of seating with varying angles and greater or lesser slopes, with specific insertions of the playing field for each one.
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AZKUNA ZENTROA CULTURAL CENTRE
#16
Architect: PHILIPPE STARCK Year: 2002/10 This modern culture and leisure centre opened its doors on 18th May 2010. Thus the city recovered one of its most emblematic buildings, namely the old wine warehouse, with a project set in the socio-economic and urban transformation which left behind its industrial past. On 16th March 2015 AlhóndigaBilbao changed its name to Azkuna Zentroa. This is a tribute of the city to the person who was the “emotional” architect of this new Bilbao. It is the acknowledgement of Azkuna’s vision of a building which had been neglected for over 30 years. To quote Iñaki Azkuna’s own words: “It will be the meeting point of Culture in Bilbao and a catalyser of co-existence in the City”. A vision which materialises day by day. Azkuna Zentroa has become the new driving force of daily life in the city since its doors opened in May 2010. A different kind of space with a contemporary multicultural programme designed to offer experiences to all the target publics.
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TORRES BLANCAS HOUSING
#17
Architect: FRANCISCO SÁENZ DE OIZA Year: 1968 One of the most impressive constructions by the architect Sáenz de Oiza is the Torres Blancas building in Madrid, one of the masterpieces of the style known as Spanish extreme organicism. Through this project, Spanish architecture of the time aimed to demonstrate its will to excel, and the cultural sophistication of a style of architecture which abandoned rationalism in order to embrace shapes which were more suited to the aesthetic needs of urban society. This residential building is 71 m high and has 21 storeys, and is made of reinforced concrete, with a structure conceived in the form of cylinders opened by means of balconies with wooden lattices, and crowned on the top with aerial gardens. Juan Daniel Fullaondo and Rafael Moneo also participated in an assistant capacity in creating these luxury buildings of their time. In 1974 this building received the ‘European Excellence Award’.
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BBVA TOWER
#18
Architect: FRANCISCO SÁENZ DE OIZA Year: 1971 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 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. The façade is independent of the structure, and is realized with a curtain wall in “rusty” steel (a material that oxidizes on its outer face, while protecting itself against atmospheric corrosion), the façade is marked with unique maintenance walkways that run all the perimeter of the tower in each one of the levels, this elements characterize the exterior image of the building. The facade is finished with bronze tinted windows, aluminum carpentry that is hidden by the steel plates that are screwed to the profiles. 21
BANKINTER HEADQUARTERS
#19
Architect: RAFAEL MONEO Year: 1972/77 This work is to solve the difficult fit between the palace sheltered housing and buildings after their forced servitude. Moneo solves the problem very simply, with respect for the urban context, to not overwhelm any of these two constructs,. The subtlety with which the building bends and opens on its rear face, visible from the street Marques de Riscal, is a precious gesture which summarizes some of the constructive nature of Moneo, away from always spectacular and unique architecture to prefer. At that time it was usual to demolish most of the nineteenth-century palaces of the Castellana, however, Moneo and Bescรณs decided to keep it and put it in value. Another of the conditions of the lot was that it should be attached to the middle of the existing building, but without harming the neighbors, as a facade of the existing building was oriented to the lot. That is why the architects opt for an oblique line in the main body, which made it possible for windows to keep clear views. This was the key to the project from the outset. In this way, a contrast is established between the vertical plane of the projected building and the modest volume of the mansion. 22
REINA SOFIA ART MUSEUM
#20
Architect: ATELIER JEAN NOUVEL Year: 2001 The main building of the museum is the old General Hospital of Madrid, a great neoclassical building of the 18th century commissioned by Carlos III and initially designed by JosĂŠ de Hermosilla and later continued by Francesco Sabatini, although only part of the project was built. The building planned until the Atocha street and the main facade that today was a being of one of the inner courtyards. Its unfinished state explains that practically nothing of the ornamentation is done, because of its stern and naked appearance. Saved from the demolition to be declared a protected building, from 1980 extensive renovations and additions were made. In December 2001 the construction of a large extension designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel was inaugurated on the site of the former headquarters of the National Institute of Higher Education Distance (INBAD). Opened on September 26, 2005, its plant has a truncated triangle shape, and has a central patio under a red cover, perhaps its most peculiar element.
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MILITARY HOUSES IN MADRID
#19
Architect: FERNANDO HIGUERAS Year: 1967/75 The housing consist of 261 first class housing units of different types with the commercial ground floor. The two blocks have been projected around a single interior patio, which provides ventilation and illumination to the zone of service. This also create an interesting inner street environment for pedestrians. In all the blocks there is a very clear structural system of porticos parallel to facade. In commercial and parking plans every two pillars of housing are collected by one. This provides a very open structure with great advantages for parking and great flexibility for commercial and residential plants.
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ESCUELAS PÍAS CULTURAL CENTRE
#20
Architect: JOSÉ IGNACIO LINAZASORO Year: 2001 In lavapies, one of madrid’s oldest neighborhoods containing a collection of historical monuments and buildings, the ‘escuelas pias’ church has undergone a modern transformation into a cultural center. local studio linazasoro & sanchez architecture looked at current state of ruin of the church premises to inform the architectural intervention that was to share a space with, and re-design, the historical structure. as each portion of the existing building was in various stages of decay, the architects sought out to capture the qualities inherent in the materials, quality of light, and proportions of spaces. in this way, the contemporary intervention was not a preconceived insertion of unrelated elements that would remain almost a secondary building within a derelict environment, but instead used updated forms of the existing elements to bring new life to the spaces, finding new ways to highlight the historical features.
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MATADERO MADRID ART CENTRE
#21
Architect: FRANCO, GARCÍA ROLDÁN, GARRIDO-RUBIO-PORRAS, LANGARITA NAVARRO, VIRSEDA-CARNICERO-ALMAZÁN, CHURTICHAGA-QUADRA SALCEDO Year: 2003 The old slaughterhouse and livestock market, where Matadero Madrid is now located, was built between 1908 and 1928. The project was commissioned by the Madrid City Council to its architect Luis Bellido. As the new century kicked in, the site was architecturally transformed. In 2003, Madrid’s City Council decided to hand the site over to sociocultural purposes and, subsequently, revision of the previous plans began. From then onwards, new interventions were initiated in order to convert the space in a center for creative assistance. It became a place of new architectural experiment, following the Special Plan’s criteria, which focused on the conservation of the surroundings. The main line of intervention centered on reversibility, meaning the buildings could easily be reconverted into their original states. By deliberately keeping vestiges of the past, the project wanted to accentuate the experimental character that the institutions would possess. One of the project’s main aims was to find a balance between a respect for the architectural space and a specific provision. 26
MEDIALAB PRADO
#22
Architect: LANGARITA NAVARRO Year: 2013 In the heart of Madrid, located next to the Paseo del Prado, Medialab-Prado has been hosted by the renewed Serrería Belga building since April 2013. These old sawmills are one of the few examples of industrial architecture still surviving in Madrid. In its over 4000 m2, Medialab-Prado is home to workshops, open labs, meeting spaces and conferences, and a digital facade of 10 X 15 metres facing the Plaza de las Letras. The adaptation of the Serrería Belga was executed by architects María Langarita y Víctor Navarro. The architectural operation is premised on a contemporary format of intervention, which goes beyond the conventional concept of rehabilitation. The proposal is constructed as a dialogue between two different entities: The Sawmill and The Thing, a device which connects both naves. The Serrería Belga, built over a number of phases during the 1920’s by architect Manuel Álvarez Naya, is one of the first architectural examples in Madrid to use exposed reinforced concrete, and which maintains, behind its classicist facade, a strong industrial character, which has been preserved. 27
‘EL AGUILA’ REGIONAL ARCHIVES AND LIBRARY
#23
Architect: TUÑÓN MANSILLA Year: 1998/01 El Aguila Brewery has been converted and expanded into a regional library and archives of the city Madrid. It is a center for the preservation, custody and dissemination of the documentary heritage of the region aimed at ensuring the transparency of administrative processes and the rights of the citizen.The Regional Archives has 30,000 square meters which are organized into three modules: contributions, storage and public attention. The storage building can hold slightly less than 100 km of shelves, divided into six apartments, surrounded by a thermal blanket for a double translucent facade that is a response to the challenge of the architectural design within the limits imposed by legislation fire prevention. The Regional Library covers 10,000 square meters. Contains a varied program of multimedia libraries in the renovated industrial spaces. The brewery silos that were used for storage now store books.
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MADRID CAJA MÁGICA SPORTS CENTRE
#24
Architect: DOMINIQUE PERRAULT Year: 2002/09 The “magic box” concept encloses sports and multi-functional buildings but opens up and shapes itself to the varius uses projecting a changing and lively silhouette in the cityscape. Its mobile and vibrant skin filters the sunlight, serves as a windbreak and shelters the sports halls in a lightwight shell. Water forms a lake to define a wide horizontal plane of reference, like a huge natural mirror. Islands (pieces of dry or verdant nature depending on their irrigation) invite to the pleasure of calm walks or sports activities. The walks proceed over footbridges, pontoons and wide places, opening viewpoints on the surrounding scenery. All told an architectural landscape that flows and ripples like a garment, a place for strolling and having fun, a venue that is alive day and night. Built areas, made of steel, aluminium, concrete and glass, are organized around a vast artificial lake over which volumes of varying sizes are scattered, like islands or fragments of nature beckoning strollers.
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MADRID RIO PARK
#25
Architect: BURGOS GARRIDO + PORRAS LACASTA + RUBIO ALVAREZ SALA WEST 8 Year: 2006/11 In 2005, an invited international competition was announced for a design of the reclaimed area above a tunnel holding a section of the M30 ring motorway immediately adjacent to the old city centre. The team proposed to resolve the urban situation exclusively by means of landscape architecture, and were the winning submission. The design is founded on the idea »3 + 30« – a concept which proposes dividing the 80 hectare urban development into a trilogy of initial strategic projects that establish a basic structure which then serves as a solid foundation for a number of further projects, initiated in part by the municipality as well as by private investors and residents. A total of 47 subprojects with a combined total budget of 280 million Euros have since been developed, the most important of which include: the Salón de Pinos, Avenida de Portugal, Huerta de la Partida, Jardines de Puente de Segovia, Jardines de Puente de Toledo, Jardines de la Virgen del Puerto and the Parque de la Arganzuela. In addition to the various squares, boulevards and parks, a family of bridges were realised that improve connections between the urban districts along the river. 30
BARCELO COMMUNITY CENTRE
#26
Architect: NIETO SOBEJANO Year: 2002/09 The Barceló Market area in Madrid includes public spaces, temporary buildings, and installations belonging to a same complex. Its multiple denomination -market/sports center/library- speaks of collective engagement and reveals the social condition of the program: a compact market topped by a sports pavilion framing the city, in front of which a cantilevered library rises above a schoolyard. In this way we assume the coexistence of three simultaneous conceptions (container, frame, bridge) that address structural variations (space frame, cantilever, beam) and generate different civic spaces: a covered street, an elongated plaza, and a raised terrace. In this combinatorial matrix—a balance of functional needs, structural systems, and urban spaces—resides the dense and hybrid condition that characterizes the project. On the boundary between the historic center of Madrid and its later expansion, surrounded by historical buildings and contemporary structures, narrow streets, plazas and extensions, the market expresses itself as an autonomous volume. 31
GINER DE LOS RIOS FOUNDATION
#27
Architect: NIETO SOBEJANO Year: 2005/07 In 2003, due to the deteriorating conditions of the Foundation buildings, a process for the rehabilitation and expansion of its headquarters starts with a design competition, whose winners are Cristina Díaz Moreno and Efrén García Grinda. Their proposal fully maintains the historical buildings -the house of Giner and Cossio, who existed before the arrival of the institution, and Macpherson Pavilion-. The rest of the buildings are replaced by a series of volumes related to each other through the garden, the space generator of the whole project. The idea of the garden as a “meeting” is preserved and becomes room continuously changing and showing its evolution over the pass of the seasons. A lively and active space recovered thanks to graphic and written documentation and the work of landscapist Teresa Galí-Izard. The building remains only as the element that shapes the garden, ceding the center stage to the open space. The rooms of the foundation, both indoors and outdoors, are orientated towards the garden, creating incoming and outgoing shapes. This decision allows dividing the garden into sectors and therefore generating multiple different gardens. 32
CAIXA FORUM
#28
Architect: HERZOG & DE MEURON Year: 2001/03 The CaixaForum is conceived as an urban magnet attracting not only art-lovers but all people of Madrid and from outside. The attraction will not only be CaixaForum’s cultural program, but also the building itself, insofar that its heavy mass, is detached from the ground in apparent defiance of the laws of gravity and, in a real sense, draws the visitors inside. The CaixaForum-Madrid stands on an advantageous site facing the Paseo del Prado and the Botanical Garden vis à vis. This new address for the arts is located in an area occupied until now by unspectacular urban structures, the Central Eléctrica Power Station, and a gas station. The classified brick walls of the former power station are reminiscences of the early industrial age in Madrid, while the gas station, a purely functional structure, was clearly out of place. Like a vineyard that could never develop its full potential because it was planted with the wrong grape, this prominent location could not develop its full potential.
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ROMAN ART MUSEUM
#29
Architect: RAFAEL MONEO Year: 1986 The building of Rafael Moneo VallĂŠs is first and foremost a paradigm of Spanish architecture of the 20th century. Conceived in 1980, it would be inaugurated six years later, consolidating with its international success the trajectory of its creator. The site it occupies is intentionally close to the theater and the Roman Amphitheater, the most famous and visited monuments of the city. Despite being outside the walled enclosure of the Roman city, there were numerous important remains of Roman times, including a stretch of aqueduct, part of the causeway that left the city in the direction of Cordoba and a neighborhood Suburban area in which private dwellings with industrial facilities and graves exist. The vast majority of the remains were preserved in the basements of the modern building. The building is divided into two modules: one to house the permanent exhibition and the other to serve the remaining functions of the Institution. Both are separated by that great diagonal that forms the Roman road found in the lot, which runs outdoors in a sort of courtyard. 34
ROMAN TEMPLE OF DIANA
#30
Architect: JOSÉ MARÍA SANCHEZ GARCÍA Year: 2011 Acting in a place with that important historical and archaeological load was a challenge that has meant working, from the beginning, both with existing traces and with those traces that existed in Roman times. We believe those traces are still valid although they are not entirely recognizable. Thus, the work answers two historical periods separate by nearly 2,000 years and gets a space from Roman times which always served as the framework to the temple of Diana. In turn, using contemporary language, we incorporate those social and cultural needs from nowadays. It allows keeping this new civic center alive and full of uses. Together with a team of archaeologists, we defined the working rules and guidelines getting to a project syntax. This language is able to assume all the irregularities and modifications from archaeological discoveries. These guidelines create an open system that can develop through time.
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MUSEO DAS COCHES
#31
Architect: PAULO MENDES DA ROCHA Year: 2010/15 The new Coach Museum emerges, not only, as a cultural site but also as a public utility space. In the words of the architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha “the Museum has no doors and relates to all of its surroundings”. The project is more than a museum; in the end it functions as an urban infrastructure providing a public utility space for the city. Thus, two concerns coexist; on the one hand the primary need to expand the exhibition area of the museum and its technical support infrastructure, while on the other, the need to create additional attractions for the most visited museum in the country. Moreover, there was a need to bind one of Lisbon’s most prominent fronts, the Belém monument area, where the construction of the new building has created a new dynamism in the museum’s surrounding area, creating new public spaces and urban walkways in the city that are reminiscent of earlier times. The new Coach Museum building comprises a main hall with a suspended nave and an annex, which is connected by an overpass, enabling circulation from one building to the other. 36
PORTUGAL PAVILION (EXPO ‘98)
#32
Architect: ALVARO SIZA VIEIRA Year: 1998 At the Expo ’98 Portuguese National Pavilion, structure and architectural form work in graceful harmony. Situated at the mouth of the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal, the heart of the design is an enormous and impossibly thin concrete canopy, draped effortlessly between two mighty porticoes and framing a commanding view of the water. The simple, gestural move is both weightless and mighty, a bold architectural solution to the common problem of the covered public plaza. Under the graceful touch of Álvaro Siza Vieira, physics and physical form theatrically engage one another, and simplicity and clarity elevate the pavilion to the height of modern sophistication. With the help of fellow countryman Eduardo Souto de Moura and the engineering expertise of Cecil Balmond, Siza created a space that was visually striking and highly effective at meeting the festival’s programmatic needs and site-specific requirements.
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PORTO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE (FAUP)
#33
Architect: ALVARO SIZA VIEIRA Year: 1985/96 Built between 1985 and 1996 by the Portuguese architect à lvaro Siza, a former student of the school, the work consists of 10 different volumes, each one with its own unique personality, but which find a common identity through color, opacity and constructive solutions. The architect decided to split this program into separate buildings. In the southern part, with views of the Douro River, they placed the classrooms and workshops. A striking feature of Siza’s work, which masterfully frames the views he wishes the observer to appreciate, is strongly highlighted in this project and, above all, in the volumes of classrooms. These volumes, whose project activity is lacking inspiration, have a strong relationship with the natural environment of the city of Porto. It is precisely these openings, along with the solar protections, where Siza creates differentiation and movement between the volumes.
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CASA DA MUSICA
#34
Architect: REM KOOLHAAS Year: 1998 The past thirty years have seen frantic attempts by architects to escape the domination of the “shoe-box� concert hall. Rather than struggle with the inescapable acoustic superiority of this traditional shape, the Casa da Musica attempts to reinvigorate the traditional concert hall in another way: by redefining the relationship between the hallowed interior and the general public outside. The Casa da Musica, the new home of the National Orchestra of Porto, stands on a new public square in the historic Rotunda da Boavista. It has a distinctive faceted form, made of white concrete, which remains solid and believable in an age of too many icons. Inside, the elevated 1,300-seat (shoe box-shaped) Grand Auditorium has corrugated glass facades at either end that open the hall to the city and offer Porto itself as a dramatic backdrop for performances. Casa da Musica reveals its contents without being didactic; at the same time, it casts the city in a new light.
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LEÇA PALMEIRA PUBLIC SWIMMING POOLS
#35
Architect: ALVARO SIZA VIEIRA Year: 1966 Since its completion in 1966 the Leça Swimming Pool complex, by Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza, has been an internationally recognized building. Still almost half a century later, it has gracefully retained its architectural integrity and remained a popular retreat. The Leça Swimming Pools has established itself as one of Siza’s greatest early works, and as an example of his careful reconciliation between nature and his design. The Leça Swimming Pools were one of Alvaro Siza’s first solo projects. After graduating from the University of Porto in 1955, he worked briefly with architect Fernando Tavora before setting up a studio as an independent architect. He is still practicing and has received various awards and accolades for his work, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1992. The Leça de Palmeira beaches are on the northern coastline of Matosinhos, a small town to the north of Porto, as well as Siza’s birthplace. It is also the site of another early work of Siza’s, the Boa Nova Tea House.
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SERRALVES FOUNDATION
#36
Architect: ALVARO SIZA VIEIRA Year: 1999 Located in the Serralves Park, the Museum is in direct dialogue with the Serralves Villa and the surrounding gardens. In the place of a monumental façade, the architecture of the museum is defined by a harmonious articulation between different architectonic elements in relation with the gently sloping terrain where it is sited. The building is erected in a longitudinal manner from North to South, with a central body divided into two wings, separated by a patio to create a U-shaped structure. An L-shaped construction creates a second patio that connects with the main building and serves as the main access to the Museum, with connection to the underground car park and gardens. The fluid disposition of the spaces of the Museum offers the visitor multiple itineraries and points of view suited to the changing programme of exhibitions and related activities. Characteristic of the architecture is the succession of long perspectives through the building and to the exterior in the form of visual ‘escape routes’ to the gardens. In the interior natural and artificial lighting are combined. 41
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