Dirección completa: Calle de la Alameda 3, 5, 23 y 25, Paseo del Prado 36, Calle deGobernador 24 y 26, Calle de Cenicero 5
Barrio de Cortes
Distrito de Centro
Madrid
Año de construcción: 2003
Arquitectos: Barbany Fontdevila, Gilbert Blanc, Patrick Carrasco- Munoz Encina, Jesus Hernandez, Jose Maria, Herzog Jacques, Lopez OteroModesto, Mateu Bausells Sebastian, Pierre de Meuron
Tipología: Arquitectura cultural
Etiquetas: CAJAS, FORMA CERRADA, ESTEREOTOMIA, ENVOLVENTES, GEOMETRIA, CONTEXTUALIZACION, DEFORMACION
Enlaces de interés : Arquitectura de Madrid
Nombre del autor de la entrada: Magdalena Pušić
The fundamental compositional strategy was to establish a duality between the historical mass (thesis) and modern intervention (antithesis), aiming to achieve a synthesis. For the levitation architects removed/deformed the plinth of the original brick building, visually detaching the heavy mass from the ground and creating the impression of floating. Building was extended vertically by adding volumes on the roof and by sinking the structure below ground level. The added upper volume has extruded parts. The margins mimic the original building, but the volume changes with solid and empty boxes. The space
beneath the levitating mass was modeled with dynamic surfaces on the floor and ceiling. This application of geometric discontinuity creates an impression of depth. The ground floor was transformed into a pass-through public plaza. The original part of the building uses geometric order through the rhythm of repeated arch openings on facade. This order is in some places interrupted by large windows. The material contrast between brick and the Cor-ten steel a duality and the color choice ensures a coherent visual tone that connects with the red brick. On the side façade there is a Vertical Garden as an organic contrast to a firm building. That space in front of vertical garden and building is a rare gap in the strict street line of Paseo del Prado.
The overall composition is a system of contradictions (Thesis/Antithesis), where the massiveness of the brick building is preserved, but a new, dynamic relationship with the urban context is established through the radical procedures of levitation and extension.
