Centro Cebada

The project is an example of regeneration of an historical area of Madrid, intended to be demolished, through the connection with the surrounding activities, the renovation of the existing structures and of the market, finally the insertion of new spaces to improve the multivalency of the space.

The guiding line of this project has been the importance of the urban reuse strategy in a crisis period with an objective excess of new constructions in our cities. It represents a sustainable way to make architecture, from economical, environmental and time point of view. Besides, the critical reading of the existent and the reinterpretation of it in a contemporary view through the new necessities, represented a challenge and an opportunity for experimenting architecture. The big interest by the residents and by important committed organizations, such as ASAF Madrid, towards the cause of Mercado de la Cebada was also an input for the project. Even more, considering the call for a competition in 2013 (by ASAF) for alternative ideas for Cebada Square and Market, in order to react to the new private “destructive” project approved by the municipality, that had been stopped for a long time, without taking into account people’s necessities. The clear existence of specific urban and functional problems also led me to attempt to find a solution that could give back the city its important symbol, without renouncing to a new image of the historic centre. The choice of the program described above is consequent to a personal research about the neighborhood where the project is inserted, Embajadores, which has some evident lacks in public equipment, compared to other parts of Madrid: after the demolition of the sport centre beside the market, the municipality never maintained the promise to build a new one, with discontent of the residents. The auditorium, instead, tries to support and potentiate the cultural activities of the area, which by now don’t have enough proper spaces to be hosted in.