The new building results from a symmetry of two twin houses which add up to conform the appearance of a large contemporary bourgeois urban villa, located close to the former Garden-City of Colonia Residencia in the north of Madrid. Most of the district’s architecture is listed, and the new building is made possible only by means of reproducing the overall volume of the site’s former construction. Inside this tight envelope, a vertical sequence oriented by two skylights unfolds as the natural piling of a variety of living conditions according to their position inside the building’s section: from a cave-like quality in the ground levels, which are excavated and surrounded by water and greenery, through the middle levels, which house the sleeping quarters, to the top floor’s roof garden which offers views towards Madrid’s financial district.
As a consequence of the neighborhood architectural environmental restrictions, the project is proposed as a conscious reflection upon the notion of character, resulting in an interpretation of a vein of local classical Modernism that includes nearby mid-XXth Century examples from architects like Rafael Bergamín, Luis Gutiérrez Soto, Miguel Oriol or José María Toledo. All of whom were able to cement a mild and sensible architectural tone compatible with the aspirations of freedom and iconoclasm historically attached to the inhabitants of this historic district, which still remains a much-sought green lung inside the city.
Facades are made up by two types of natural limestone rainscreen cladding with sustainable insulation panels. This, together with geothermal systems for heating & cooling, extensive planting and the building’s simple form factor, adds up to an optimal energetic performance, in an architecture that soughts the pairing of certain atavistic qualities with the promise of an urban contemporary lifestyle.
Project: Siamese Dream
Status: Competition - First Prize (2021) Under construction
Client: Private
Location: Colonia Residencia, Madrid, Spain
Team: Jacobo García-Germán, Miguel López, Raquel Díaz de la Campa, Marta Roldán, Paloma Mayor, Gonzalo Macías, Adriana Muñoz
Landscape Design: ATP Paisaje
