We think of cities as always full, frenetic and crowded, but there are still voids abandoned by the voracity of new construction; pockets of air forgotten in a system that prefers the new to making the existing sustainable. One such place is in the center of Madrid, in the courtyard of a historic building dating from 1859. Originally a beautiful washing place, it ended up as the abandoned ruin of a car workshop: degraded, damp and without natural light. 3D3N project gives a second chance to this urban ruin, giving value to its existing heritage with a new ecological awareness that considers it essential to reduce the ecological footprint of architecture.
3D3N is a workspace that revolves around the introduction of the natural into the office, through the following strategies:
- cutting through the existing floor slab to make the basement habitable, giving it as much natural light and ventilation as possible, creating courtyards. Now, from the basement it is possible to see the clouds in the sky;- creating hybrid devices around the courtyards through the aggregation of simple elements (stairs, table, bench, patio or planters). These new spatial entities-islands are capable of keeping the building as clean, luminous and diaphanous as possible;
- developing an open plan system with privacy zones between the different work groups through the use of vegetation, allowing the interior space to be perceived as if it were an exterior. The walls are plants with different degrees of density and opacity;
- multiplying the uses of the spaces that turns the former vehicle ramp, a place with an intense relationship with the street, into an urban filter and a grandstand for events, exhibitions and collective projections.
From a new ecological awareness, 3D3N works in the center of a congested city with a limited budget and sustainable materials from the creative reinterpretation of historical heritage and the construction of oases outside the urban frenzy that bring the city closer to sustainability and nature.
Project Sheets
Authors: Bernardo Angelini, David Casino & Rodrigo Delso
Address: Avenida Ciudad de Barcelona 47-49, Madrid, Spain
Area: 600 mq
Client: Catorce Comunicación
Project phase: Bernardo Angelini, David Casino y Rodrigo Delso
Constr. phase: Bernardo Angelini y David Casino
Colaborators: Clara Buenadicha
Quantity Surveyor: Alberto López
Engineering: Jesús Crespo; Juan Alacid; Inercia
Landscape: Carmen Varela
